Connie Schutzenhofer Schmidt, Professional Funster

“Professional Funster?” you ask. Well, let’s break it down.

pro·fes·sion·al
Function: adjective
1: participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs
2: following a line of conduct as though it were a profession

fun·ster
Function: noun
1: a slang term for a person who participates in fun.

For a time, back a couple of decades, Connie (along with another 72 classmate named Gwen) was an integral part of a local group calling themselves Professional Funsters and having fun in all of the right places. (Minds out of the gutter!) With activities centered mostly on boating & skiing, this funster-pack traveled many miles in search of water-like-glass, cool beverages on warm summer days, and beautiful sunsets. After many of the couples within the group broke up, and after neck surgery for Connie in 1993, water skiing and the Professional Funster era came to an end in the same fashion as the disco era…gone, but never forgotten. In their hearts, once a Professional Funster, always a Professional Funster.

Would a future Professional Funster drive a baby-poop-colored car to high school? Well, this one did. During her senior year, the only year spent at CMHS after having moved to Cottage Hills from East St. Louis in 1971, Connie made many new friends. How many of those friends Connie took to school in her “yellow” Mustang, we don’t know, but we do know that she drove it through rain, sleet and snow to work in the office of Don Simpson, Superintendent of Schools for District #8 during this year and even after graduation. After working for Mr. Simpson, she went on to Lewis & Clark Community College to major in Secretarial Science. This led to employment with Kroger, National, Venture, and eventually Miller’s Mutual Insurance, all companies that no longer have a presence in the Riverbend area, but through no fault of Connie’s…she says. To defend that point, she offers that she has been an Administrative Aide (that's a secretary, to the rest of us) for 17 years at SIU-Edwardsville, and the school is still open.

Connie and her husband, Dave, (CMHS class of 1973) and a collection of more than 200 clowns (figurines of every shape and size, not the real clowns that you find at the circus) reside in Roxana in a house built for them by Bob Dake, CMHS teacher alumni. Dave has 20+ years of service with Boeing (fka McDonnell-Douglas) in St. Louis. The happy couple has fun together fishing, visiting with family, and traveling. Among their favorite vacations: one fall trip to the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and other trips to Arizona. Connie met Dave July 1985 at The Runway Lounge in Bethalto, and it was love at first sight; they were married October 1985. Many of you will remember that Dave is the brother of our 72 classmate, Chris Schmidt, who was/is a friend of Connie’s, along with their sister, Ginny. It was these friendships that brought Connie to The Runway that day in 1985, a day that Connie counts among the luckiest days of her life. (Tissue, please.) Connie’s stepson, Michael, 25, lives in Godfrey, and works at Washington University.

Connie says its “funny how time has crept up on us,” but she and Dave look forward to retirement, and before that, to seeing everyone at the class reunion on September 1.

We say, “Send in the clowns, Connie. It’s time to initiate some new Professional Funsters.”