Obituary for Lee Otis Schmidt

 

Lee has moved on -- into God's eternal realm, leaving a legacy of faithful husband, fatherhood, friendship, loyalty to nation and kindness toward all. Those yet to follow him are his 4 sons, David, Paul, Peter and Mark, 2 daughters-in-law, Hailey and Patty, 2 grandsons, Daniel and Austin, and his sister, Myrna Holder. He also leaves his many friends at the North Hills Community Church.  

 

Lee was born in 1936 in Oakland, California, and later a graduate of Los Angeles High School (1954), and then the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he earned bachelor's and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering, in ‘58 and ‘59. He then worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the LA Department of Water and Power, Beckman Instruments and Hughes Aircraft before moving to Bakersfield and working for Siebrent Insurance, Watson Realty and later starting his own business, Mark 70, Inc.

 

After taking residence in Oildale in 1975, the entire family joined the Aqua Aces swim team with Lee and his wife, Dorothy, working as scoring officials while the boys swam. In the mid-1980s he combined his support for swimming with his unique talent for computer programming and developed software to manage swim meets. For over 25 years Lee would help run various swim meets, and track and field events, all across Kern County and beyond. His scoring prowess spread to include the Kern County Special Olympics Swimming and BARC Bowling championships. 

 

Lee was active in the LA chapter of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) after his graduation.  He maintained his activity with the LA chapter even after moving to Bakersfield.  He served the chapter as its chairperson for many years off and on. 

 

Lee spent his final two years with his typical good humor despite a battle with Leukemia. All who knew Lee are welcome to write their own remembrances in the condolence book at .

 

In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to Bakersfield ARC (barc-inc.org) and the North Hills Community Church. A memorial service will be held at the North Hills Community Church, 823 Day Ave, Oildale, California, at 11 a.m. Sunday, August 15.