Death of A.L. "Art" Schmidt

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Long time readers of MR and other Kalmbach publications will remember the work of staff photographer Art Schmidt, including some spectacular cover shots but also the more work-a-day stuff such as photos for product reviews. His name was on the MR masthead from around 1950 to the 1990s. The clarity, sparkle, and depth of field that he routinely captured in color and black and white are remarkable under any circumstances, and he did it all without the many aids and programs available to today’s digital photographers.

Although known for his photography of model trains, and I even recall a prototype railroad photo or two that was published over his name, his own hobby was remote control model airplanes.

This morning’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contained his obituary. A good long life, but I wonder if this means there is now, finally, nobody left who actually worked on a day to day basis with Al Kalmbach himself.

Here is the obit:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jsonline/obituary.aspx?n=arthur-l-schmidt-al-schmidt&pid=167663819&fhid=5686

Dave Nelson

2

Art was a great talent, and his work gave me some pretty good examples of how to take pictures. His subjects also gave me great ideas about modeling trains, railroads, and all the rest. My home built models derived a lot of their details from Art’s razor sharp pictures.Rest in peace.

Rich

3

I’m pretty sure Jim Kelly and Andy Sperandeo were at MR when Mr. Kalmbach was still the publisher. Jim still writes a column, but Andy is retired (but apparently will still do occasional projects).

4

Russ Larson too, also retired though.

However, I believe Al Kalmbach was not actually involved in day to day operations for a long time prior to his death. If you look at the old photos over the years you can see how he aged rapidly as the Parkinson’s took over.

–Randy