Dwight Alan Schmidt
Dwight Alan Schmidt Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information (jostfuneralhome.com)
May 21, 1956 - July 3, 2022
Dwight Alan Schmidt was welcomed into this world by his parents Peter Schmidt, Jr. and Hilda E. Schmidt on May 21, 1956. He was born in Goessel, KS and brought home to meet his siblings Jolene, Darrel and Janet in their home in Lehigh, KS. The family was blessed with two more children, LaVonne and Julia, in the following years.
Dwight attended Lehigh Grade and Junior High School and Hillsboro High School. He attended the Lehigh Mennonite Church where he was baptized. Currently he was a member of First Mennonite Church of Hillsboro.
Growing up in a small town was a wonderful experience for children in those years. We were free to roam the town and play with all the neighbor kids till dark without fear. We all loved to visit our father at the local filling station where he worked and spent many hours there. Dwight remembered helping our father read water meters and replace light bulbs on the town’s streetlights. He remembered having the time of his life running down the halls in Lehigh High School where our father was the custodian, as do the rest of us. He remembered the smell of baking zweibach with mom on Saturdays and working in the garden with the family. He also remembered mother helping the children with their Sunday School lessons every Saturday evening. As a family we spent many hours on the farms of our grandpas' and grandmas' and playing with cousins on the weekends was a big highlight. Dwight participated in making rubber band boats for races in the stock tank with his brother and cousin and then, of course, plunging in to cool off in the summer heat.
During high school years he played in intramural sports. Word has it that he could make a basket from “pretty far out.” He had a group of friends he hung out with; we aren’t quite sure what kinds of shenanigans they were up to. He also spent time at Henry’s Auto Shop in downtown Lehigh and helped work on cars. It was a hangout place in the evenings and weekends for Lehigh kids.
Dwight was a very dedicated and hard worker. He started working at AMPI in Hillsboro when he was 16 years old both before and after school. He would get up early and roar down the road in his white Corvair. He started out loading and unloading freight and rose to the position of manager, doing the ordering of all ingredients for the Baskin Robbins ice cream that was made at that plant. He also ran the store they had on the premises. For Christmas the family always got gifts of “cheese” he purchased from AMPI -- and it sure was tasty! This was all, of course, before computers so he had to keep all manual inventory records. He could still recite phone numbers for the places he called and names of the salespersons he dealt with. He had a very sharp mind and memory. He was one of the last employees to walk out the door when AMPI closed.
He also worked on the trailer assembly line at Circle D in Hillsboro for several years. After that he worked for some years at Walmart in McPherson where he was placed in charge of stocking the entire dairy department and he was very well liked there. He was also a faithful volunteer at the Et Cetera shop in Hillsboro.
He was a quiet person but one-on-one he was very friendly and cared deeply about people. He had a wonderful dry sense of humor which we all loved and will miss.
Dwight was a good cook and loved to look up recipes and try them out. He would also make up his own. He hunted pheasants and would try various ways of fixing them to eat. He loved nature and would take peaceful drives in the country for pleasure. He had several vehicles over the years that he was quite proud of – a red 1977 T-bird, a 1978 black and gold El Camino (called The Black Knight), a BMW motorcycle and several pickups. He planted flowers and rhubarb in pots outside his door and took good care of them. He put out water and bird seed for the birds and frequently had to chase the squirrels away. He was an avid reader and always had a book beside him. He won the award in his elementary years for “Most Books Read” during the school year. He kept up on all the current news and always seemed to know what was going on before any of us did. He had a love of music and had an extensive collection of record albums and CDs. He recently got a record player and was listening to his old albums. He loved KU basketball and the Chiefs. He watched most all their games and could tell you exactly how they were doing. He had a coin collection. He loved hats and had “a zillion of them.” When Mother was still with us he would visit her in the nursing home in Hillsboro several times a week. His visits cheered her up and made him feel like he was doing what a faithful son would do.
2018 was a hard year as he battled cancer. He was very brave as he faced radiation and chemotherapy. He never complained but remained upbeat. It was during this time that he rediscovered his faith and love for God. He read scripture and devotionals and many books to learn more and more about living a life to please the Lord. That continued until the end of his life.
2019-2021 were good years for Dwight. He had moved to his apartment on West Grand in Hillsboro and was asked to be on the board of the Hillsboro Housing Authority, which he accepted. He thoroughly enjoyed those meetings, making friends with the executive director as well as the maintenance man. He even helped with little projects in the housing development. He always enjoyed visits with our family and he loved his little apartment and his life there.
2022 again saw the return of cancer. He said that it felt like the movie “Groundhog Day” as he had to return to Tammy Walker Cancer Center in Salina for radiation and chemotherapy. We are so thankful for the kind doctors and nurses who assisted him there. He was once again very brave and never complained. This is a quote from Dwight – “Life on this earth can be very hard at times. But the Lord has plans for each of us. We all have to put our trust in Him.” After sending Dwight the scripture from Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you; I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” he replied “The Lord’s hand is on my shoulder.” We know that this was the true expression of his faith, as he had given his life to Jesus and was ready to follow the path that was chosen for him.
Dwight passed into the presence of our Lord on July 3, 2022 at 2:57 p.m. “with the Lord’s hand on his shoulder” after an emergency air flight to KU St. Francis Hospital in Topeka. He is now with our mother, father, sister Janet and nephew Marshal as well as many relatives and friends who have gone on before. We are sad but do not grieve without hope because we know we will see him again in heaven.
We love you, Dwight Alan Schmidt, our dear precious brother, and we will carry on here on earth with the “Lord’s hand on our shoulders” until we meet again.
Your dear brother and sisters,
Jolene, Darrel, LaVonne and Julia
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