Obituary: Rupert P. SCHMITT
Posted for Milwaukee Co., March 26, 1999

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lenora Weber
Mulock  <  brennajne@aol.com  >

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Surnames:  SCHMITT, JENNERJAHN, URBAIN, HEMMI
Source:  Milwaukee Journal, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1953
Copyright:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  Permission issued.  May NOT
be republished without permission from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Obit:  Rupert P. SCHMITT, 1890-1953

Ailment Fatal to Mr. Schmitt.  Church Art Expert
Services for Rupert P. Schmitt, Sr., 62, nationally known authority on
ecclesiastical decorations, will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Becker
Funeral Home, 5330 W. Lisbon Ave., and at 9:30 a.m. at St. Jude’s 
Church, Wauwatosa.  Burial will be in Holy Cross Cemetery.  The body
will be at the funeral home after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.  Mr. Schmitt,
president of the Conrad Schmitt Studios, 1325 S. 43rd St., died of a heart
ailment Sunday t his home, 8212 Rocky Way, Wauwatosa.  He had been
under a doctors’ care the last two years.  Mr. Schmitt decorated and
fashioned stained glass windows for some of the leading churches in
America, including Sacred Heart Church, Tampa, Fla., Trinity Episcopal
Church, Columbus, Ga., and St. Louis Cathedral, St. Louis, Mo.  He
received the craftsmanship award of the Baltimore (Md.) Building
Congress for stained glass windows he installed in the Old Baltimore
Cathedral.  He was a leader in reviving ancient fresco techniques for
Church murals and medieval style and stained glass.  Mr. Schmitt
believed that every church should be decorated as a unit, with one artist
making both the decorations and the stained glass windows so that an
essential harmony of style would be maintained.  He also believed that
glass workers always should adhere in the existing style or architecture
of a structure in designing window.

Mr. Schmitt made several trips to Europe to study architecture and
decorations of churches there.  Before World War II, when a German
invasion of France was feared, he went to France to help remove the
windows of the Chartres Cathedral in order to study the glass closely.
It was then, associates said, that he realized the real beauty of glass as it
was used in medieval structures.  The Schmitt Studios made six stained
glass windows which were installed in the Franciscan monastery in
Washington, D.C. in 1940.  It was said then, that a new style in church
windows has been introduced. Mr. Schmitt called it a modern adaptation
of the renaissance style.  It was described as having the grace of the
renaissance while being as simple as the medieval style of stained glass.
Mr. Schmitt was a native of Milwaukee.  He studied at Marquette Univ.
from 1905 to 1907.  He became associated in business in 1907 with his
father, the late Conrad Schmitt, founder of the studios.  It is the oldest
stained glass firm in the city. Mr. Schmitt had been president of the firm
since 1940.  He was president of the American Stained Glass Assoc.
from 1950 to 1952, and he was a charter member of the Kiwanis Inter-
national , the Milwaukee Society of Decorators and St. Jude’s Church, 
and he was a member of the church’s Holy Name Society.  He also
belonged in Serra International, fourth degree, Knights of Columbus
and the City Club.  He was president of the Wauwatosa Club in 1939
and 1940, and belonged to the Wauwatosa Sane Fourth commission.
Survivors are his wife, Elizabeth, two sons, Airman, Conrad V.,
stationed in England, and Army PFC Rupert P., Jr., stationed in Texas;
two daughters, Mrs. Warren P. Jennerjahn and Mrs. John Urbain, both
of New York City and his mother, Mrs. Mary Hemmi Schmitt,
Wauwatosa.  A vigil will be held at the funeral home at 8 p.m.