Honoring the Life and Leadership of LWVMN Board Member Ray Schmitz

An Olmsted County Attorney for 24 years and the Assistant Attorney for 14 years total a professional life dedicated to public service, as reported by Matthew Stoll from the Rochester Post Bulletin. LWVMN and LWV Rochester Board Member, Ray Schmitz, passed away on Dec. 13, 2023 at the age of 84, leaving his mark on his community.

Fellow state and local Board member, Amy Caucutt, knew Ray well from working with him when she was an Olmsted County lobbyist in St Paul. Ray worked with Representative Dave Bishop on sex offender issues, community corrections, victim services, and juvenile corrections, writing legislation that is now law and making a name as a great prosecutor. According to Amy, he believed in a community corrections system that worked, not just long sentences.  

Ray graduated from the University of Minnesota’s law school and took his duty of serving the community seriously. “Schmitz believed in using his post as a bully pulpit, a voice in shaping public policy at the state level. He served on numerous boards and task forces, bringing wider attention to local concerns and issues,” Stoll reported. He engaged in tough conversations.

Ray lost his seventh re-election bid in 2006, but he did not retire from being an effective advocate. Stoll writes that he became co-chair of the NAACP and environmentally focused boards. Up until his passing, Ray was a leader for the League of Women Voters, participating on environmental issues and local redistricting efforts. Ray communicated across the many organizations in which he had leadership roles and had legal, environmental, and community knowledge to boot which shone through in a hard fought battle to prevent coal trains from coming through Olmsted County. In fact, he and his wife helped organize similar campaigns across the whole of the DME Railroad line from Wyoming to South Dakota and back here.

Ray’s years of experience directly from law school to the county attorney’s office to using his stature and commanding voice outside of the courtroom will surely be missed. For those of us who knew Ray like Amy did, I am sure that we can extend our gratitude to honor Ray Schmitz, an active and effective public servant and participant for values that League members share.