Aroline Hiles Schmitt, a leader of Wisconsin conservation efforts, was born in Jamestown,
New York on August 4, 1904. After she earned her L.B. in Nurses Training from Hamont
Hospital, Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1925, she married Max Schmitt, a Milwaukee businessman. The
couple had two children, Maxine and John.
During the 1930s, while her children were still young, Aroline Schmitt became active in
Junior Garden Clubs and acted as a nature study guide in local schools. Her volunteer
conservation work soon became a full-time career, as she served the following organizations:
Citizens' Natural Resource Association, president; "Forests," executive director; Friends of
the Land, charter member, director, and third vice-president; Milwaukee County Conservation
Alliance, charter member, forestry chairman; and Wisconsin Garden Club Federation, state
conservation chairman, as well as a number of other groups. Schmitt, starting during World
War II, she began working for the United States Forest Service, retireing in 1961
Schmitt continued her conservation efforts by telephone and by mail after a serious
illness in 1948 left her an invalid, and during the 1950s she became vice-president of the
Citizens' Committee for the Menominees. She received awards for her volunteer services from
the following organizations: the Izaak Walton League in 1950; Quota Club of Milwaukee in
1952; a citation from Lane Bryant around 1955; and the Wisconsin Garden Club, which
established the annual Aroline Schmitt conservation scholarship.
Aroline Hiles Schmitt died on March 28, 1995 in Moscow, Idaho. In 2019 Schmitt was
inducted into The Wisconsin Conservation Hall of
Fame.
