Fr. Sylvester Schmitz (1888-1953)
The father of the Modern St. Benedict’s College, known as “the Bear” by generations of college students, died at age 65 of a heart ailment at St. Margaret’s Hospital, Kansas City, Kan. He was born at St. Benedict (Wildcat), St. Mary’s Parish, Nemaha Co., Kan. He did his preparatory school work in Atchison and later at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn. He made first profession in 1907 and was ordained priest June 28, 1912. For a time he taught Latin, Greek, and mathematics at St. Benedict’s before doing graduate work at Columbia University. Father Sylvester and Abbot Martin Veth were the only teachers in the first summer school started at Mount St. Scholastica in 1919. He later earned a doctorate from the Catholic University of America in psychology and education in 1927. Dom Thomas Verner Moore, OSB, was one of his teachers.
On his return to Atchison he began the process of changing St. Benedict’s College from offering a European style curriculum to being a genuine modern liberal arts College. Accreditation from the North Central Association and the University of Kansas were attained, degrees in the liberal arts and sciences became a reality. Intercollegiate athletics began to flourish.
Father Sylvester wrote in various journals on educational matters. He decried the neglect of the teaching of spelling in the elementary schools. His dissertation was entitled, “The Adjustment of Teacher Training to Modern Educational needs.” Though classically trained and from that background “his influence on education in the middle west was to liberalize and modernize it.” Thus spoke the author of an article in The Atchison Daily Globe.
Classical he was and he loved to teach Latin to beginners at St. Benedict’s College. Each year he offered a 6-hour-a-week, no-credit course for anyone who wanted to learn, largely students for the priesthood. During their exams he often played the zither which he built while his beleaguered students were trying to concentrate.
Father Sylvester built not only a zither but also a boat that he sailed on the Missouri River. He also built a storage facility for it and the oars. The building was sometimes referred to as “Father Sylvester’s ‘Oar’ house.” – of such stuff legends are made.
