HOW WE SEE IT A Full Life, A Long Legacy

Posted: November 20, 2009 at 3:44 a.m.

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Asociety is judged by how well it treats its most vulnerable members, its children and the aged.

By that measure, then Lawrence Schmieding was a very, very valuable member of society.

Schmieding, 89, died Monday after scarcely wasting a minute of his life. His last half-day at work was the preceding Thursday. He was the respected, honest, hard-driving president of H.C. Schmieding Produce of Springdale. The company shipped food, a basic necessity.

He made money at it - and gave much of it to the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education and the Schmieding Children’s Center. Those two facilities are only the capstones of a lifetime of philanthropy that was harder to see.

Schmieding’sgenerosity was too great to remain discrete, even though he clearly preferred not to make a show of things. He was never stingy with the intended benefits of his gifts, either. These centers and other projects of his and his family serve the whole region. They are accessible to just about anybody who needs them.

Another old saying is that charity begins at home.

Lawrence Schmieding did more than just sign checks. He vowed to his brother Bert, who had taken ill, that he would never have to go to a nursing home. With Schmieding’s wealth, one might think that was an easy promise.

Schmieding did not just hire a caregiver and forget, though.

The difficulty Schmieding had finding people he considered qualified, professionally and personally, to care for his brother was an eye-opening experience for him.

One result was a $15 million donation to begin the senior health and education center, located next to the Schmieding Produce building in Springdale. Schmieding donated another $5 million after the center opened in 1999, three years after Bert’s death. Schmieding passed away before the center’s 10th anniversary celebration on Wednesday.

Schmieding was one of five sons, the one born on Oct. 6 in Lincoln, Neb. A World War II U.S. Army veteran, he moved to Springdale in 1947 where older twin brothers Herbert and Hulbert (Bert) had started up a trucking business.

That business grew into the produce company, specializing in the demanding task of transporting fruits and vegetables.

Schmieding joked that he worked only half-days: From 6 a.m.

to 6 p.m. Someone else joked that it took a lot of potatoes to build the senior center.

Bert and Lawrence donated more than $1 million to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital to start up the child’s center near the Northwest Medical Center in Springdale. This allows the nationally renowned children’s hospital, which is in Little Rock, to bring specialists to Northwest Arkansas on a regular basis and have offices and other facilities they need to work here.

Many people will live longer and more fully thanks to Schmieding’s generosity. His money was the produce of his time, and time is what life is made of, as Thoreau pointed out.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/20/2009

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