Eulogy of Professor Otto H. Schmitt

William E. Davies, Frank H. Meyer, Bruce M. Peret

Professor Otto Herbert Schmitt, 84, Professor Emeritus in Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics and Zoology at the University of Minnesota, and long-time promoter of the Reciprocal System and member of ISUS, died on January 5, 1998 of pneumonia. Otto Schmitt was born on April 6, 1913 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and married in 1937 to Viola (deceased), his devoted spouse of 58 years.

Otto Schmitt had been a professor of biophysics, biomedical engineering, and electrical engineering since 1939. Technically retired at age 70 in 1983, he went on teaching graduate students and doing research until 1994. He often said that if one learns the “figures of thought” used in other fields, you become an expert in those fields as well, because all knowledge is transferable. In this way, he saw “connections” that the rest of us fail to notice. His philosophy allowed that if you use their language, you can learn from everyone. He had no need to kill the mocking bird, to find out how it sings.

A multi-disciplinary man, with more than 70 patents in his name, including the Schmitt trigger: an electrical circuit that simulates nerves–now used in computers, biomedical apparatus, television, and many other devices in use by the military, industry, and the home. An invention used by the military in World War II located German submarines which were devastating Allied shipping. Another protected ships from mines. Many were classified TOP SECRET. He had to re-invent some of them for use outside the military. More went unpatented during his life. He purposely allowed his inventions to be stolen, to “get the thing in service without having to do all the financial and government mess” so that the public would benefit from them.

He founded the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Biophysical Society, and was a founding member of the AAMI, from which he received the Laufman Prize in 1992. Part of the credit for his success he gave to four Nobel prize winners, who had been his teachers as a teenager at the Dashlemdorf branch of what is today the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Berlin. Contacts like this only sparked his desire to present ideas of initiative and invention in the early life of every child.

He was also a multi-dimensional man, who knew from childhood that life is eternal, when his “gross mutter” [grand mother] came to him after she had died, to say good-bye. His wife, Viola, slept in his arms every night when they were together for 58 years, and she died in his arms during a night in 1994. After her leaving, they shared another evening together at the dining room table in their unpretentious home. He and Viola were very like the home they lived in.

Throughout his life, he communicated with colleagues while asleep and confirmed data the next day by telephone. He had a method for teaching students how to access the fourth dimension by the use of color. Figuring he had another 10 years, one of his many goals was a program for teaching children, in their early years in school, to access other dimensions so that they would develop a continuity of consciousness.

In an interview for the University of Minnesota Technolog in 1986, he said that we need to promote the assumption that “your students will be brighter than you” and “If I can’t teach my students in 2 years what it took me in 3, then I’m not doing a good job.” His purpose was to broaden everyone’s horizon to become aware of the exceptional talents and abilities of each individual.

Beginning as a young child of 5, he knew from his experiences with Civil War veteran Jacob Silers, who educated him in philosophy, comparative religions, science, mathematics, medicine, etc., that children exposed to multi-disciplinary learning have a greater awareness of what they can do in life, because they have self esteem and confidence within themselves regarding their own abilities. Awakening them to the spiritual force within would open them to the Universe itself. He wanted this taught to every child, in every school. To achieve this goal, he would use the “gradualness principle” which he had learned from Pavlov, and which he thought was of greater importance than the salivating of dogs. To get an idea or concept accepted, one puts forward only enough to disturb and challenge. Then, wait a period of time before adding more to the challenge. Continue the process until it becomes acceptable. The task of fulfilling this goal has now been left to others.

He felt comfortable and at home with members of the Theosophical Society which he joined in February of 1986, as a prelude to his first lecture for the Minneapolis branch. He was a speaker on a number of occasions. One evening, he took the evening’s speaker aside and to ask if he had ever been on 7 planes at one time. He also had a way of communicating with his own body to know what was going on and/or what he should do for it, or asking questions to understand some of the problems he needed to solve.

Like all truly great men, Otto exhibited all the fruits of the spirit. He was humble, kind, thoughtful, courteous, considerate, open, and receptive to everyone with whom he came in contact.