Adolf W. Schmidt

Biographical Information
Adolf W. Schmidt (died in 2001) "After graduation he studied in France and Germany, winning honors. He then entered Harvard business school, graduating in 1929. Returning home to Pittsburgh, he headed a municipal campaign to better the city. When WWI broke out, he volunteered for active duty, and, as a lieutenant-colonel, he commanded OSS operations in Africa. After the war he became a vice president and governor of the management firm T. Mellon and Sons, in Pittsburgh. Pres. Eisenhower appointed him our ambassador to Canada, where he served for five years.

"If only there was space to tell of all the organizations in which Dolph was interested. They include cofounder of World Crisis Committee, and he was the US delegate to numerous conferences seeking greater Atlantic solidarity.

"Dolph married Helen Mellon, who survives. Other survivors are his son, Thomas, a daughter, Sedgley Claire, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild."

After World War II "His subsequent contributions to the Atlantic Community and to the concept of Atlantic Union will be of particular interest to members of the Empire Club. He was a delegate to the Atlantic Congress in London in 1959-Jand to the Atlantic Convention of NATO Nations in Paris in 1962. He has not only been a Governor of the Atlantic Institute in Paris and a Director of the Atlantic Council of the United States, but also a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"From 1946 until his arrival in Canada, Mr. Schmidt had been Vice-President and Governor of T. Mellon and Sons, the firm which manages the financial and charitable interests of the Mellon family. His additional service as President of the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust was a natural consequence of his first love--art and architecture."

"Mr. Schmidt was pioneer in the effort to stablize the world's population and conserve resources. He was a co-founder of the world Population Emergency Campaign at Princeton in 1960, the Population Crisis Committee in Washington, D.C., in 1965 and Population-Environment Balance in 1973."


 * U.S. Ambassador to Canada, 1969-1974
 * Former Director,
 * Former Chairman, Population-Environment Balance
 * Former Member of Advisory Council, National Strategy Information Center (1984 at least)

Related Sourcewatch

 * Vladimir Toumanoff