Before he could help countless patients battle cystic fibrosis over a decades-long medical career, H. Joel Schmidt had to lose a classmate to the disease.
Dr. Schmidt’s dedication to serving those with cystic fibrosis — and even his devotion to the medical field— can be traced back to his days at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington. In April 1975, O’Connell sophomore Brenda O’Donnell died from cystic fibrosis. In 1976, her sister Maura, who also endured the disease, organized the first “Superdance” dance-a-thon at O’Connell to fundraise for medical research into a cure.
The family’s story inspired him to enter the field of pediatric pulmonology.
Dr. Schmidt (O’Connell Class of 1976) graduated from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in 1980 and received his medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
He spent most of his medical career in the U.S. Army where he remained for 26 years with assignments as a general pediatrician, a community hospital deputy commander, a member of a medical center command staff, a member of the Army surgeon general’s staff, and culminating as the chief of pediatric pulmonology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. Dr. Schmidt retired from the Army as a colonel in 2006 to join the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond.
O’Connell awarded Dr. Schmidt the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.
