Schmid graduated from St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI, and worked several years for the General Electric Co. before joining Crescent Electric in 1977. Over the years, he held a number of positions with the company, including account manager, branch manager, area manager, V.P. of marketing and senior V.P community relations. He also served on Crescent Electric’s board of directors.
In its announcement of his passing, Crescent Electric said in a statement, “Dick had a huge personality and was a friend to all. He was also a huge Chicago Bears fan and loved to play practical jokes on his friends. He and Carrie Schmid, his wife of 23 years, worked closely with the rest of the Schmid family to help fund and start the Crescent Community Health Center, which has served thousands of patients in need since 2006.
“He and his wife also founded the Schmid Innovation Center, Dubuque, IA, which supports non-profits and community initiatives, and StartUp Dubuque, which provides resources to encourage, cultivate and promote growth and success of start-ups and early stage companies. Dick will be missed by his many friends throughout the industry.”
About the Author
Jim Lucy Blog
Chief Editor
Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.
