Henry Edwin “Hank” Schmidt III, age 86, passed away peacefully May 6, 2024, at his Bellingham home, with his wife by his side.
Hank was born Jan. 22, 1938, in Seattle, Wash., to Henry Edwin Schmidt Jr. and Elizabeth Louise (Johnson) Schmidt. He was the second of three children and grew up with his older sister, Jean, and younger sister, Janet. Hank, along with his siblings and cousins, spent summers on family property on Anderson Island in South Puget Sound. He attended John Muir Elementary School and Franklin High School in Seattle, graduating in 1955. As an athlete at Franklin High, he broke Seattle City swim records and was named to the All-City Football first teams for both defense and offense.
Hank was a proud pledge and lifelong supporter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was a walk-on member of the University of Washington freshman football team, but found his place with the UW Crew, where he was captain and stroke of the Varsity Eight. Hank paid his own way through college, dropping out for one year to work as a garbage collector for the city of Seattle. He graduated from UW in 1961 and went on to receive an MBA from the University of South Carolina while working…