William F. Schmitt

William Francis Xavier Schmitt (Bill) died on May 1, 2025 at Kendal in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Bill was born May 14,1926 in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, to Clementine Regina (Gigi) Schmitt (née McCullough) and Aloysius Francis Schmitt. He attended high school in Philadelphia, and served as a corporal in the U.S.Army in 1945-1946. According to family legend, he weighed 108 pounds when he was inducted, but the Army took him because they assumed that was a typo for 180. He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1950 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Penn in 1970. As an undergraduate at the Moore School, Bill worked as an operator and then programmer for ENIAC, the world’s first programmable electronic digital computer, and implemented the SHORT CODE, the first example of a high level programming language. Bill was also a founder and technical director for WXPN during his time at Penn. After graduation he worked at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and then UNIVAC, where he managed the logical design department and was responsible for the design of the UNIVAC LARC and the UNIVAC III. Except for several years with the  Auerbach Corporation in the sixties, Bill worked at UNIVAC until his retirement in the early eighties. His work at UNIVAC and Auerbach resulted in numerous patents. After retiring from UNIVAC, Bill taught at Drexel for several years, then was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Temple University from 1984 until 1996.

While a student at Penn, Bill met Laura Belle Wear (Laurie). They were married in 1952 and lived in Wayne, Pennsylvania until Laurie’s death from cancer in 1974.  In 1977, Bill (who never learned to dance), met Joan Schleifer (née Lieberman) at a Unitarian dance. They married in 1978. They were together from the night they met until his death, and brought Bill’s children, Johanna (Annie) and Edward, and Joan’s children (Caren, Alan and Liane) together in a loving blended family. Bill and Joan traveled around the world to dozens of countries and enjoyed many adventures. 

Bill's kindness was an essential part of him. He had a brilliant, active mind and kept up with the latest scientific discoveries until the end of his life. He loved puzzles and ice cream. He knew all the constellations. Weather was his religion. Bill loved to fly and co-owned a Cessna for some years. He volunteered at Longwood Gardens for many years, gathering and creating a data table of perennial bloom times that formed the backbone of Tomasz Aniśko’s When Perennials Bloom: An Almanac for Planning and Planting. 

Bill is survived by his beloved wife Joan (née Lieberman). Loving father to Johanna (Annie) Schmitt and the late Edward Schmitt, Caren Diamond, Alan Schleifer and Liane Schleifer.  Proud grandfather of David Robinson, who has followed in his footsteps in seeking a Ph.D. in Physics but is heeding Bill's advice to not wait until he is married with children to get it.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Bill’s honor to whyy.org.

Services will be private.

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