Shadle teacher carved out special niche

Tucked into a shelf in a neat and clean living room with avocado-colored carpet and a window that looks out on dozens of birds feeding from hand-crafted feeders, there’s a picture of a shining new woodshop.

In that picture, groups of clean-cut, all-American boys are gathered around band saws and belt sanders. Standing on one side helping a student is Carl Schmidt, Shadle Park High School’s first wood shop teacher.

“That picture of him in his shop really symbolizes the relationship between him and his students,” said Carl Schmidt’s wife, Lena. “They just wanted to be in woodshop with him.”

Carl Schmidt, a World War II veteran and teacher for 26 years, died Aug. 9 after battling pulmonary fibrosis for more than a year. He was 85. The man who loved fishing and found the profession of teaching to suit him best was remembered by his family last week as being quiet, loyal, warm-hearted – and at times, stubborn.

“Oh, he was a stubborn German,” Lena Schmidt said with a smile and a laugh. “When he wanted his way, he wanted his way.”

Sometimes wanting things his way meant finding a restaurant that served clam chowder on Fridays, an absolute necessity for Carl.

But other times that stubbornness meant a fierce and steadfast love for his family, which included two daughters, Donna Lange and Ginnie Todd, and one granddaughter, Janessa Todd.

“No matter how many times I moved, what happened with marriages or divorces, whether he agreed or not, he just stood by me,” Lange said. “He just trusted me, and he would support me.”

Lena Schmidt recalled his quiet demeanor on a “lovely Sunday afternoon” in 1949 when Carl was walking to his car from what was then the Eastern Washington College of Education campus. He saw Lena and offered to walk her to the dormitory where she worked.

“You have a car?” asked an interested Lena, who that afternoon promised to take a ride with Carl the next day.

They were married a year later, and the next year moved into a home in the 100 block of North Locust Road. Two months later, Ginnie was born.

“Janessa Todd was raised by her mother, who was single for much of the young girl’s childhood. But she never felt like she was missing out on having a father, as she recalled dancing while standing on the tops of her grandpa’s shoes on the same avocado-colored carpet.

“As far as fatherly influences, he helped raise me,” Janessa Todd said.

Carl cared deeply about his family, and was upset with himself when he made a mistake, Ginnie Todd said.

Usually Carl Schmidt would pick up Lena from Rogers High School, where she worked, after his day was done at Shadle.

But one time he forgot when he drove past the large windows of Rogers High’s cafeteria. Lena saw the car go by.

“When he got home, we asked, ‘Where’s Mom?’ ” Ginnie Todd said. “Well, there would be a couple of cusswords, but he’d get right back in the car and go get her.”

At Shadle, teachers came to know him for his ability to hand-craft paddles for discipline enforcement. Students came to know him as a teacher to trust.

“He ran a tight ship, he really did,” Lena Schmidt said. “You had to when you had adolescent boys and power tools coming together.”