Marvin Schmitt

Marvin M. Schmitt passed away on October 1, 2017. Marvin was born June 7, 1932 in South Dakota to John and Carolina (Wolf) Schmitt. He was the youngest of ten children. His mother passed away from sun stroke when Marvin was 7 so he was shuttled from one home to another. However, he did graduate from Central Valley High School in Spokane. He was drafted into the Army in 1952 with a tour in Korea as Sergeant Electrician Inspector and returning home honorably discharged in 1955. Before leaving for Korea he married his high school sweetheart, Joanne Kent of Spokane. Upon getting back into the states, Marvin went to college, graduating from Eastern Washington University in 1958, majoring in Math and Physics. He immediately went to work for General Dynamics, working on the Atlas Missile. From there he went to work for Minneapolis Honeywell at Hanford, working on the alarm and heating systems. His third job was working for Bower Machinery Co. in Spokane,a Caterpillar dealer. There he started creating various attachments for the customer’s equipment that would help them do specific jobs. With a nine-month stay in Reno, Nevada, working on a power line, he returned to Washington but landed in Yakima working for Inland Machinery Co. the Caterpillar dealer as a salesman. While working at Inland Machinery Co. he met Lucille and they were married in 1979. Now with both knowledge of power line jobs and Caterpillar equipment, Marvin designed and started building sagging winches for Caterpillar tractors that would allow the power lines to be pulled to the exact tautness. He started his own company, Power Line Equipment Engineering Co., and made several different machines for stringing power lines. When the recession hit he had to rethink what he wanted to do. So, he and a friend designed, built and started selling a retrofit device for toilets that would save water. The called their company Select-A-Flush. In 1997 Marvin was diagnosed with colon cancer so he retired. Marvin is preceded in death by his parents and all siblings. He is survived by his wife of 38 years; his daughter Nina Zottolo of Spokane; his son Patrick of Bonny Lake; three grandchildren and five great grandchildren; his stepsons: Bryan (Sarina) Paulson of Roseville, CA and Randy (Kodie) Paulson of Laguna Niguel, CA and two step grandchildren of Roseville, CA. Per his request, Marvin has been cremated and there will be no funeral service. In Lieu of any flowers, donations can be made to the Humane Society or Cottage in the Meadow. The family thanks the staff of Cottage in the Meadow. They did a great job. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Marvin Schmitt, please visit our flower store.