Richard Leroy Schmitt

Richard LeRoy Schmitt, 81, of Hemet, CA, passed away on Sunday, July 21, 2019, in Hemet, CA. Dick was born August 30, 1937 in Anaheim, CA. as the only child of the late Hyacinth Edward and Thelma Lee Schmitt. Dick and his family moved to Chino after the third grade and graduated in 1956 from Chino High School, where he met his future wife, Kathy Dittrich. He then went on to obtain a business degree from Cal Poly, Pomona in 1962. In addition, he graduated from Officer’s Candidate School, San Antonio, Texas in 1964, obtained a certificate in City Planning from the University of California, Riverside in 1975, certificates from the Specialized Training Institute, Camp San Luis Obispo in 1982 and 1989. He was a licensed California State Contractor in Building, Electrical, and Plumbing as well as a licensed State Pesticide Applicator. Dick took other post graduate courses of interest to him such as Entomology and Ecology. The Ecology course led him to become, what he termed himself, a rabid environmentalist. He came to support and/or join over 50 Environmental, Human Rights, and Animal Rights organizations, among those being a lifetime member of the Sierra Club, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Wildlife Federation and others too numerous to mention.

He joined the California Air National Guard while still in High School. After marrying his High School sweetheart, Kathy, in December of 1962, he sought to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a pilot for the Air Guard and, after graduating from Officer’s Candidate School and despite his allergies which threatened to keep him out, he was finally accepted for pilot training at Lackland AFB in Texas. His flight instructor told him that he had no respect for the plane and his fearless manner of flying “scared the crap” out of him so he would not let Dick move on. His wife, Kathy, and especially his mother, received this news with a great sigh of relief and he didn’t push to continue in that career.

Returning home, Dick and his wife settled in Pomona, CA, where Dick became a building inspector for the city of Pomona. Dick and his wife moved to Chino when Dick finished building their new home there. Dick was active in home construction while still in college and while employed for the city. He and a partner built a house in Chino as their senior college project. As a young married man, living in Pomona, he built a total of three more homes in Chino, including his own, while also working for the city. Within a few years, Dick accepted a position as the Building and Planning Director for the city of Hemet. By then he was the father of a girl, Heidi, and son, Jason, still in diapers. Dick and Kathy purchased a parcel of land from Kathy’s father on a Hemet hillside upon which there was an old house and studio above a garage. First, living in the old house, Dick gutted and remodeled the studio so his family could move into it while then tearing down the old house in order to build their new home in its place. In Hemet, he got to indulge his love of gardening and animals, among which were milk goats, chickens, geese, peafowl, and pet pigs, in addition to the traditional dogs, cats and pony for Heidi.

As the Planning Director of Hemet, Dick had many plans which he managed to implement to improve the city. He wrote a strict sign ordinance and implemented a Design Review Board for signs and commercial buildings that required landscaping and underground utilities on new construction. While Dick became the darling of those in the city desiring beautification and improvement, he became the bane of some businesses that preferred the status quo. Soon, the powers that be acted to cut off Dick’s power to plan by separating the position of Building and Planning Director into separate entities and appointing a puppet as the new Planning Director, leaving Dick as the Building Director. This action proved so frustrating to Dick that he left the city’s employ to accept the civilian position as Base Civil Engineer for the California Air National Guard, then located in Ontario, in 1974. Almost immediately after Dick quit with the city, Hemet dismantled the Design Review Board and stopped enforcing the sign ordinance, much to the detriment of the city. Seeing Hemet deteriorate after his hard work was a pet peeve of his and he’d occasionally, to no avail, bring up these failings to the city, that always claimed they were too understaffed to enforce the laws.

As the Base Civil Engineer at the Ontario ANG base, he supervised and was intimately involved with the construction of the new facilities at March AFB when the expansion of the Ontario International Airport forced the California Air National Guard to move to March AFB. While acting as the Base Civil Engineer, Dick was also active militarily in the Air National Guard and took part in many deployments including those to Korea, Honduras, Costa Rica, Hungary, England, Panama, and various areas of the USA. His deployments in Costa Rica and Honduras included building schools and a clinic for the native population. He rose in the ranks to that of Lt. Colonel and became the Commander of the 163d Civil Engineering Squadron at March AFB until his retirement in 1993. He wasn’t through with serving in the Guard yet, however, because he immediately re-upped with the Channel Islands Air National Guard where he served until 1997 as Pest Manager. He served a total of 41 years in the California Air National Guard, an organization he loved.

Dick remained active in community affairs until his death. He belonged to Valley Beautiful, remaining a member even after he could no longer physically participate in caring for the gardens at the Ramona Bowl, Estudillo Mansion, and the Hemet Depot. He continued to attend Board Meetings of the Hemet Heritage Society although battling cancer. Dick was instrumental in saving the Hemet train depot through the ‘Save Our Station’ group, was an active member of SAGE, the Optimist Club, and the Democratic Club, for which he once served as Treasurer. In his later years he became a member of the Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship. When they sought to obtain a permanent meeting place, he volunteered to act as the general contractor and do most of the actual building himself after having his architect daughter also volunteer to design the building.

After retirement, Dick satisfied his need to be an active environmentalist and his love of nature by purchasing a 500 plus acre ranch in the Ozarks of Missouri. There, even while feeling sick from his illness, he worked with Missouri conservation agencies to return the property to its native state by encouraging natural grassland over foreign fescue, removing many invasive cedars in favor of the native trees and planting trees under the guidance of the conservation agencies.

During his retirement he indulged in his love of travel, always having the next trip in mind. Frequently, his wife and he traveled with his old ANG buddies, Buz Turner and Bob Lawrence, where a good and adventurous time was had by all. Recent travels covered such countries as Latvia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, Lithuania, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Many other countries, such as Germany, Italy, England, Scotland, and China, were covered in prior years and a trip to New Zealand was in the works when cancer struck and curtailed further travel.

Dick leaves behind his wife of 56 years, Kathy; his children, Heidi Gibson and Jason Schmitt; their spouses, Mike Gibson and Lily Zhang Li Schmitt; grandchildren, Grace and Gannon Gibson, and Sofi Schmitt. Dick loved his friends and family. His friends sustained and kept him going until the end.