Benno Charles Schmidt Sr. (January 10, 1913 – October 21, 1999) was an American lawyer and

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...

ist who was active in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

civic affairs and played an important role in the initiation of the

War on Cancer The "war on cancer" is the effort to find a cure for cancer by increased research to improve the understanding of cancer biology and the development of more effective cancer treatments, such as targeted drug therapies. The aim of such efforts is ...

.Benno C. Schmidt, Financier, Is Dead at 86
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 22, 1999

Life and career

Born in

Abilene, Texas Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor and Jones Counties in Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan st ...

, Schmidt grew up in that city in a household that was not financially well-off, but placed an emphasis on education. His father died when he was 12, so his mother's job as a secretary supported the family. Schmidt was educated at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where he received both his A.B. and law degrees in 1936. At Texas he was a member of

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fiftee ...

fraternity and the Texas Cowboys. After receiving his law degree, he spent time as a member of the Texas law school faculty and at Harvard Law School as a Thayer Teaching Fellow. In 1942, following the United States' entrance into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he enlisted in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

. During his military service he rose to the rank of

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

and was awarded several medals, including the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight u ...

and

Bronze Star Medal The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. W ...

. In late 1945,

Jock Whitney John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the '' New York Herald Tribune'', and president of the Museum of Modern Art. He was a member of the Whitney family. Early life W ...

invited him to join a new business he wanted to start to finance new companies seeking to capitalize on newly identified markets and social needs. In 1946 he became a partner in the business that Whitney had proposed,

firm J.H. Whitney & Company. He became managing partner in 1960 and remained in that position until 1992. Schmidt is credited with coining the term

to describe the area of providing early or "seed" capital to aspiring entrepreneurs. The term was a shortening of the word "adventure". One of the Whitney & Co.'s first investments was the Spencer Chemical Company, which was formed to acquire a

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the chemical formula . Salts containing this ion are called nitrates. Nitrates are common components of fertilizers and explosives. Almost all inorganic nitrates are soluble in water. An example of an insolu ...

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

plant in

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

that was being declared

surplus Surplus may refer to: * Economic surplus, one of various supplementary values * Excess supply, a situation in which the quantity of a good or service supplied is more than the quantity demanded, and the price is above the equilibrium level determ ...

by the U.S. government and convert the plant to produce

ammonium nitrate Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, although it does not form hydrates. It is ...

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

. Whitney and Schmidt put $1.5 million of Whitney's funds into Spencer and reaped a 20-fold profit on their investment. Another of Schmidt's successful initiatives at J.H. Whitney & Co. was acquiring an early stake in

Minute Maid Minute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy brand in Central Europe and under the bran ...

. Schmidt championed that investment over the Whitney's initial concern about the "tinny" taste of the company's

orange juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As well as vari ...

concentrate. Schmidt served on the boards of

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute� ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and

Freeport-McMoRan Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's ...

, among others. He was a trustee of the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

. In 1971 U.S. President Richard M. Nixon appointed him to the chairmanship of the President's Cancer Panel, which initiated the U.S. federal government's War on Cancer. Schmidt was the chairman of

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Vertex Pharmaceuticals is an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry. It maintains headqu ...

board and one of its largest early investors. Schmidt had five sons, including

Benno C. Schmidt Jr. Benno Charles Schmidt Jr. (born March 20, 1942) is the Chairman of Avenues: The World School, a for-profit, private K-12 school, and served as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY) until 2016. From 1986 to ...

, who was President of

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

and Dean of

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

. Schmidt died from heart failure in October 1999 at the age of 86.St. Bernard's School Newsletter, No. 26, Winter 2001, page 21

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Benno C. Sr. 1913 births 1999 deaths New York (state) lawyers People from Abilene, Texas University of Texas School of Law alumni American venture capitalists Recipients of the Legion of Merit 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American businesspeople Members of the National Academy of Medicine