In Memory of Charlie Schmidt

In Loving Memory

Charles F. Schmidt Jr.

We have lost a friend, a co-worker, a gifted chemist, and skilled statistician.

Charlie Schmidt died of injuries received in an accident Friday, May 8, 2009 at his cabin in the Hill Country of Texas. It was to be his retirement home.

Charlie came to the AAB Proficiency Testing Service in 1989 from the University of Alabama, Birmingham where he was an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Lipoprotein Laboratory.

Charlie developed and managed the grading systems that are currently used for all of the AAB Proficiency Testing Programs. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the Renesselaer Institute in Troy, New York and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer and Information Science from the University of Alabama, Birmingham. He received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

Occasionally he would point out, to those of us who weren't, that he was a real chemist; not a biochemist or a clinical chemist. He was right, there is a difference. He knew, understood, and quickly grasped things that brought many of us to our intellectual knees.

We will miss Charlie's unique personality, his South Padre Island sense of style, his incisive wit, and his amazing understanding of facts and data.