Remembrance: Henry L.P. “Hank” Schmelzer

March 26, 1943–January 12, 2026

By Ron Beard, Secretary, Board of Trustees

College of the Atlantic has lost a valued friend and leader. Board of Trustees Vice Chair Hank Schmelzer passed away in Somesville in the home he shared with his wife, Cynthia Livingston, on January 12, 2026 following a short and spirited battle with cancer. 

Hank joined the board in 2008, bringing with him decades of experience in corporate and securities law, business and nonprofit management, investment strategy, and philanthropy. 

Prior to his election to the board, Hank served as president of Maine Community Foundation, now a significant state-wide philanthropic force, created by the founding president of COA, Ed Kaelber, on his retirement in 1983. Over nearly a decade, Hank brought deep insight to that role, supporting the hard and joyful work of building community resilience with investment policies that produced growth from careful stewardship. Quoted in a 2007 article in Mainebiz, he noted, “… philanthropic nonprofit organizations are in themselves businesses. The only way they can successfully carry out their missions is if they’re well-run organizations.” 

Throughout his College of the Atlantic tenure of 27 years, Hank served on many of the board’s standing committees, including finance, investment, and development. Hank helped his fellow board members grapple with complexity, developing an understanding of when and how to make strategic investments in student housing, teaching space, and human capital. 

He was enthusiastic in his willingness to tell the story of COA, inspiring others to pledge their support through two successful capital campaigns, bringing total reserves from $19 to $90 million, enabling the college to significantly grow its academic programs and its scholarship support for students. He lent thoughtful leadership to strategic planning, most recently providing a framework aligning the work of the board and the college administration.

In 1969, following graduation from the University of Maine and George Washington University Law School, he enlisted, and as a Captain in US Army Intelligence, was sent to Vietnam. He served as part of a joint CIA and Army effort to cripple capacities of the Viet Cong, and earned a Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry.

In a Maine Public Radio interview in 2017, Hank recounted that after only four months in country he realized the US could not win the war against the Vietnamese Communists. He also understood that the military prefers 17 and 18 year olds, perhaps lacking the time or education to think things through or ask many questions.

He may have been impressed, therefore, with the perceptive questions College of the Atlantic students were asking about the college’s investments in the mechanisms of war. Hearing them, Hank worked with fellow trustee Roland Reynolds and other members of the investment committee to recommend changes that reduced those investments while maintaining the board’s fiduciary responsibilities.

Following news of his death, Hank’s fellow board members shared how welcome he made them feel. One recalled that he and Cynthia had opened their home during a weekend of meetings, sharing a joy of living that included “…integrity, fun in the out of doors, intentional partnership with one’s spouse, and good wine.” Another recalled her first board meeting, seated next to Hank, who leaned over with gentle words of welcome and encouragement during the typical flood of information, policy discussion, and opportunities. 

Former board chair Beth Gardner remembers Hank having the magical capacity to be a mentor and friend at the very same time. She said that she and Hank began as colleagues and ended up with a deep friendship.  

“There were so many complicated decisions that we grappled with: hiring a new president, acquiring real estate, building a new dorm, divestment—no question, no request too much for Hank, he never once failed to answer my call and offer his sage advice. He brought joy and the humor of life to every decision or sticky situation—mixing those along with his fierce intelligence. COA benefited from that magic touch,” she said. 

Beth also told how Hank, no stranger to woodland creatures from his boyhood work at a Massachusetts dairy farm, helped with a home invasion. “With the swiftness and confidence of a fighter pilot and the help of a broom and a few pots and pans, Hank ushered a wayward bat to freedom, to the glee and cheers of her three children.” 

COA’s current board chair Cynthia Baker reflected her experience of Hank as a gentle lion. “His twinkle and warmth, along with his adventurous spirit, blistering smarts, and New England fortitude was without parallel. He was a mentor to so many of us, and his dedication to College of the Atlantic was inspired, always urging that we follow its very best angels… he and Cynthia Livingston modeled how to be both community leaders and dear friends.”

Emeritus board member and past chair Will Thorndike noted that he had taken a turn to drive Hank, with Cynthia, to a series of cancer treatments in Bangor. He recalled Hank with clear traces of his old vitality intact, robust ruddy coloring, and trademark nattiness of dress, including an old touring cap. Hank was clear and unwavering in his support for the college, its new president, and its prospects. Arriving back in Somesville, Will recounted how Hank turned to him and said, “ I have been on a lot of boards, and the best one, by far, is the board at College of the Atlantic.”

Although of German ancestry through his immigrant parents, Hank spent 12 years at the Berlitz School in Boston learning Italian to enhance his and Cynthia’s many skiing and hiking trips to their beloved Dolomites. However, I think of Hank when I read the 18th Century Scottish bard, Robert Burns. In his song For a’ That and a’ That, Burns celebrates qualities we admired in Hank, highlighting the common man who doesn’t flaunt his status or wealth, who needs no trappings to be a valued member of a community, one who recognizes the dignity and worth of every person. 

For those without benefit of the Scots language, I offer a humble translation of one verse, in tribute to Hank: 

What though on homely fare we dine,

Wear homespun grey, and all that;

Give fools their silks, and knaves their wine,

A man’s a man for all that:

For all that, and all that,

Their tinsel show, and all that,

The honest man, tho’ e’er so poor,

Is prince o’ men for all that.