Terry Allen Schmidt

Col (Ret) Terry Schmidt died 5 Nov 2022 of heart related issues, in California. Terry was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1943 to Howard William Schmidt and Beverley Marion (Wilke) Schmidt. He is survived by his wife, Denise (Welch) Schmidt, in Gold River, California, where they had lived for the past 33 years, and his nieces Dianna Gustafson and Carrie Scholtz, and his sister-in-law, Bonnie Schmidt, all of Wisconsin. Terry graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1966, flew C-130 aircraft in Vietnam, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Legion of Merit, Defense Superior Service Medal, and the Air Medal. Upon his return, he married Denise Welch in Midland, Texas. He enjoyed a long and fulfilling military
career, first flying C-130s, and later T-49s, accumulating more than 5,000 hours of flight time. He always said one of his most enjoyable postings was as an Exchange Officer to the Royal Australian Air Force, at RAAF Base Richmond, near Sydney, Australia. He went on to attend graduate school at the Air Force Institute of Technology, earning his Masters Degree in nuclear physics, and was appointed the Director of the McClellan Central Laboratory, Technical Operations Division, at McClellan AFB in Sacramento,
which was tasked with monitoring the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and several classified programs. He retired from active duty in Sacramento in 1994 and started his business as a computer programmer and consultant for small businesses. He devoted much of his free time to his longtime love of railroads and railroad history, and was a Founding Director of the Placerville Sacramento Valley Railroad in Folsom, a nonprofit organization for preserving railroad history by operating a heritage railroad for the public. He was also a longtime board member for the Sacramento Valley Historic Railway (SVHR) in Woodland, at times serving as a Conductor or Brakeman on its tourist railroad that ran between Woodland and Clarksburg, and working many years to help restore the historic Woodland Train Depot, built in 1911. He was very proud of his own model railroad, which was featured on German television and in several German magazines and DVDs. He also was a longtime member of the Carmichael Kiwanis Club, the National Model Railroad Association, and the Air Force Academy Association of Graduates.

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