Schmidt, Arturo Eduardo (1923–2012)

Arturo Schmidt was a pastor, ministerial secretary, and evangelist in South America and Europe as well as a missionary among the Muslims.¹

Arturo Eduardo Schmidt was born on February 26, 1923, in Córdoba, Argentina. His parents, Karl Frederick Schmidt and Bárbara María Nauer, came from Germany and Switzerland, respectively. They had seven children: Elena, Enrique, Gertrud, Marta, Arturo, Ester, and Inés. Karl worked in a wood plant as a beekeeper, but later worked at the River Plate Sanitarium and River Plate Academy in Puiggari, Entre Ríos, Argentina. Thus, Arturo spent his youth in the provinces of Córdoba and Entre Ríos. He was baptized in November 1938 in Puiggari, Entre Ríos.

Arturo Schmidt graduated in 1943 in the ministerial and commercial course at River Plate Junior College.² On January 8, 1974, he married Beatriz Nélida Visani. Beatriz was born on December 3, 1923, in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her parents were Antonio Visani and María Elvira Amorosi. In the same city, she was baptized in March 1943. She graduated from a teaching course.

Schmidt’s first tasks in the Adventist organization were in the treasury area. He worked in the offices of the Central Argentine Conference (1943–1944) and the North Mission in Argentina (1944–1946). From there, he began a long career as an evangelist in the Central Argentine Conference (1946–1954), Paraguay Mission (1954), and South Chile Conference. He thus contributed to the preaching of the gospel in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, and the Dominican Republic.³ On January 16, 1954, Arturo Schmidt was ordained to the pastoral ministry.⁴ Later he went to Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States, to complete higher education at Andrews University (1961–1962).

From 1963 to 1969, he was the Ministerial secretary in the South American Division, in which territory he held evangelistic campaigns and the 5-Day Stop Smoking Plan. From 1970 to 1975, he served as Ministerial secretary of the Euro-Africa Division with headquarters in Berna, Switzerland. In this way, he extended his dynamic evangelistic campaigns to the countries of Europe and Africa. Starting in 1975, he served as an associate secretary in the Ministerial department of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Maryland, United States. He held evangelistic campaigns in all continents except Australia. In 1983, he became the Islamic Team director in General Conference, a ministry that took him to work in Muslim countries such as Egypt, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, and countries in Africa and Asia, among others. To successfully carry out such a specialized ministry, he had to study Islam and its sacred books deeply.⁵ Hundreds of Muslims have come to know the Adventist faith through his ministry.

From 1990 until his retirement in 1996, Schmidt returned to work as Ministerial associate secretary of the General Conference.⁶ Then he had to devote his attention and strength to taking care of his wife, Beatriz, who was affected by Alzheimer’s disease. In 2001 she was hospitalized in a nursing home in Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos, Argentina, a mostly Adventist community where Arturo had family and friends. Schmidt divided his attention and time between his wife in Argentina and his children and grandchildren in the United States. Beatriz Visani Schmidt died in February 2010. After her death, Arturo returned to the United States. He spent his last years in Trumbull, Connecticut, with his daughter, Lissie, and her family, where he could visit his son Roy and family in Tennessee and his son Carlos and family in Colorado. In the last stage of his life, Arturo continued to preach in the local Hispanic churches.

Pastor Arturo E. Schmidt died on December 22, 2012, at the age of 89. He is remembered as an active, generous, and profound missionary who was devoted entirely to the cause of preaching the gospel to different cultures and in different regions of the world. 

Sources

La voz del colégio [Voice of the academy], November 1943.

Schmidt, Arturo E. “El poder divino y la cosecha final” [The divine power and the final harvest]. Revista Adventista [Adventist review], April 1992.

———. “Informe de la campaña evangelística de Santo Domingo, República Dominicana” [Report of the evangelistic campaign of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist review], October 1962.

———. Seminario “Cultura islámica y el honorable Corán” [Seminar “Islamic culture and the honorable Koran”]. Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos: Instituto de Misión y Crecimiento de Iglesia, 1998.

———. “Se progresa en Villa Ocampo” [Progress made in Villa Ocampo]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist review], February 1953.

———. “Un ramillete de noticias” [A bunch of news]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist review], July 1953.

Notes

1. The data have been taken mostly from the life sketch presented by Ariel Schmidt at the funeral of Pastor Schmidt, entitled “A Service in Celebration on the Life and Faith of Arturo Eduardo Schmidt,” December 29, 2012. Information corroborated with file 1369 of the former Austral Union Conference in the Argentine Union archives.↩

2. La voz del colegio [Voice of the academy], November 1943, 19.↩

3. See the following articles of Arturo Schmidt: “Se progresa en Villa Ocampo” [Progress made in Villa Ocampo], La Revista Adventista [Adventist review], February 1953, 9–10; “Un ramillete de noticias” [A bunch of news], La Revista Adventista [Adventist review], July 1953, 10; “Informe de la campaña evangelística de Santo Domingo, República Dominicana” [Report of the evangelistic campaign of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic], La Revista Adventista [Adventist review], October 1962, 12–13.↩

4. Arturo Schmidt was ordained to the ministry in Puiggari, Entre Ríos, by the officiating pastors A. V. Olson (Vice President, General Conference), W. E. Murray (President, South American Division), A. Aeschlimann (President, Austral Union Conference), and Juan Riffel (President, Central Argentine Conference).↩

5. See Arturo Eduardo Schmidt, Seminario “Cultura islámica y el honorable Corán” [Seminar “Islamic culture and the honorable Koran”] (Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos: Instituto de Misión y Crecimiento de Iglesia, October 12–13, 1998).↩

6. See Arturo Schmidt, “El poder divino y la cosecha final” [The divine power and the final harvest], Revista Adventista [Adventist review], April 1992, 9–10.↩