Ronald Stanley Schmidt

The wildlife of the world breathed a collective sigh of relief when Ronald Stanley Schmidt, 77, squeezed the very last drop of life from his mortal body on May 30th, 2025 after a long battle with Parkinsons disease, dementia, neuropathy and male pattern baldness.
Ron was born in Sauk Center, Minnesota on January 23rd, 1948 and grew up in Holdingford where he was a star athlete in football, basketball, track, baseball and illegal sucker netting in the Two Rivers Creek. He earned a scholarship to play football at the University of North Dakota where he was a three-year starter at free safety, earned all-conference honors and was invited to NFL training camps with the Chiefs and Cowboys. Ron, who could clearly ascertain that he was a white defensive back, skipped NFL training camp and instead took the safer route by joining the Army at the height of the Vietnam war, which likely saved him from a life of drugs and ladies of ill-refute.
After proudly serving his country, Ron returned to Central Minnesota, became an insurance agent for Northwestern Mutual and met the love of his life, Irene (Thull), with whom he had four children that were spoiled rotten with love, attention and all the wild game meat their little hearts desired.
Ron was heavily involved in the community and in various philanthropic efforts. Over the years he was chairman of the Holdingford School Board, President of the Lions Club, and Opole Parish council president, to highlight a tiny fraction of his civic involvement. Besides all of his volunteer time and working 80 hours a week to build his insurance business he coached little league and never missed one of his kid’s sporting events or nightly family dinners.
Ron’s true passion, besides his family, was the outdoors. He spent 60 years trying to pull off a “reverse-Noah” where he set out to kill two of every animal on earth, which he nearly succeeded at. He hunted every species in North America and went on 8 safaris to Africa. His prowess as a hunter can be viewed at his “Museum of Death” in the family home.
Ron also loved world travel, from the streets of Beijing to the plains of Africa, the Pyramids of Giza to the brewhouses of Germany, but he was never too worldly to turn down a few crappy light beers at a local dive bar. He was a lover of good food, good drink, good friends and good times.
Ron was preceded in death by his daughter, Amanda and his parents, Elmer and Armela. He leaves behind his wife of 51 years, 3 kids, (Luke, Karyn and Lindsey), 5 grandkids (Adalyn, Niah, Asher, Gunnar and Lola), 4 siblings (Richard, Renee, Robert and Randy), 2 grand-dogs (Chi-Chi and Harley) and more real friends than anyone ever claimed to have on Facebook.
Ron’s wake will be from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 5th with Parish Prayers at 4:00 p.m. and a revelry of life held the following day at 11am. Both services will take place at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Opole with a luncheon of the finest funeral hotdish man has ever known to follow. Arrangements are with the Daniel Funeral Home in St. Cloud.
Donations can be made in Ron’s honor to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research (www.michaeljfox.org) and/or the Holdingford Scholarship Endowment (funds.ifound.org/hse).