By Joe Wessels
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mrs. Schmid

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. - Touching lives came easily for Jeannine L. Schmid.

One of the Enquirer's Women of the Year in 1970, Mrs. Schmid went from Glenmary Catholic nun to author and a founder of one of Cincinnati's Montessori schools.

Besides its Montessori method, Mrs. Schmid's approach was different: putting poor and rich students in the same class.

"Not only was that a policy, that was an edict," said Braden Mechley, a lawyer and friend whose children went to the school. "Half the kids had to be poor, and the rich kids paid for the poor kids."

The cross-cultural experiment remains alive today at St. Rose Catholic Church in the East End. Another school in Price Hill closed.

"She was way ahead of her time," said Mechley of Clifton. "The bureaucracy was against it. The health department, the city said you couldn't do it. We always had a bunch of resistance."

The former Cincinnati resident died Monday after a long battle with cancer. She was 72.

Mrs. Schmid had a knack for getting people to support her ideas.

"She had a way of drumming up public enthusiasm and just sweeping people away, kind of like a pied piper," said Tom Wallace, another friend and school supporter. "She was a visionary; she saw this stuff coming."

Mrs. Schmid's second book, Nurturing Your Child's Spirit, is now in its third edition.

Ten years after founding the school, Mrs. Schmid left Cincinnati in 1978 to pursue a doctoral degree at Purdue University.

Mrs. Schmid and Alfred B. Olson were married 241/2 years and lived in Arroyo Grande, Calif., where they met.

She was a former faculty member at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.

Mrs. Schmid founded The Laureate, another school, in Arroyo Grande and served as directress until retiring in 1998.

"She was real fighter," Olson said. "She believed in trying to help the underprivileged."

Mrs. Schmid would mentor her former students in ways to guide their own children.

"She was just one of those teachers in your life when (you) talk about the five most important people in your life," said Susan Lucci, a former student and Oak Park, Ill., resident. "I think it's just remarkable 36 years later that I had this relationship with her."

In addition to her husband, Alfred B. Olson, survivors include: five brothers, John Schmid, Jr. and George Schmid, both of St. Paul, Minn., James O. Schmid of Hampsted, N.C., Giles C. Schmid of Winona, Minn., and Paul E. Schmid of Eatonton, Ga.; and three sisters, Mary Ann McMillan of Hethrow, Fla., Susan Haugland of Austin, Texas, and Eleanor Carroll of Chicago.

Mass of Christian burial will take place in Arroyo Grande on Monday.

Memorials: The Laureate Fund, 880 Laureate Lane, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406.

E-mail jwessels@enquirer.com