Benno C Schmidt Jr

Benno C. Schmidt Jr., a constitutional law scholar who became one of the country’s leading education executives, bringing difficult but necessary reforms to Yale and the City University of New York, died over the weekend at his home in Millbrook, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. He was 81. Benno C. Schmidt, Jr., former president of Yale University, is a legal scholar and nationally acclaimed expert in higher education. He joined the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Board of Trustees in February, 2007. Schmidt is chairman of the Council on Aid to Education, a not-for-profit organization that provides assessment and strategic planning services to colleges and universities both in the United States and internationally. He also serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban public university in the world. Schmidt led Mayor Giuliani’s Task Force on CUNY, and in 1999 authored a report that provided the blueprint for CUNY’s extraordinary renaissance. Schmidt had already achieved renown as an expert in constitutional law when Columbia University selected him to be dean of its law school in 1984. Less than two years later, Yale named him, at age 44, as its 20th president. Chairman of Edison Schools since 1997, Schmidt served as Edison’s chief executive officer from 1992 to 1998. Prior to joining Edison, Schmidt was president of Yale University from 1986 to 1992; under his leadership, Yale’s endowment grew at a higher rate than all other private universities. Schmidt developed a model public/private partnership between the University and the city of New Haven, led one of Yale’s largest building initiatives, and helped create several interdisciplinary programs in environmental sciences and policy, and in international studies. Prior to his term at Yale, Schmidt was dean of the Columbia University Law School. He was named Harlan Fiske Stone professor of Constitutional Law in 1982. In his fourth year on the faculty in 1973, he became one of the youngest professors to receive tenure in Columbia’s history. Schmidt is recognized as a leading scholar of the First Amendment, the history of race relations in American law, and the history of the Supreme Court. Schmidt is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. He was a law clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren; and, prior to joining the Columbia Law School faculty, he served for two years in the Department of Justice. Benno Charles Schmidt Jr. was born in Washington, D.C., on March 20, 1942. Benno Sr. was a founding partner at J.H. Whitney and Co., considered the world’s first firm to specialize in venture capital — a term the elder Mr. Schmidt is credited with coining. His first three marriages, to Kate Russell, Betsy Siggins and Helen Whitney, ended in divorce. Along with his daughter Elizabeth, he is survived by his wife, Anne McMillen; his son, Benno C. Schmidt III; another daughter, Christina Whitney Helburn; his stepdaughters, Leah Ridpath and Alexandra Toles; his brothers, John and Ralph; his stepsister, Ruth Fleischmann; five grandchildren; and two stepgrandchildren.