Ida Schmertz, 91, formerly of Jenkintown, pioneering women’s activist, international relations innovator, presidential appointee, first female senior vice president at American Express, volunteer, mentor, and role model, died Thursday, July 2, of organ failure at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
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Born in Amsterdam, Ms. Schmertz and her family made their way to Philadelphia and then Jenkintown at the start of World War II in 1940, and she became a trailblazing American powerhouse in civil and women’s rights, international relations, corporate management, and healthcare.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in international relations, and did everything but write a dissertation for a doctorate in international relations and Soviet studies. She was founding codirector in 1971 of the groundbreaking Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, founding co-chair in 1994 of the International Business Incubator and Training Center in Russia, and founding chair of the board of trustees for the Romanian-American Foundation in Bucharest in 1994.
Wherever she was, Ms. Schmertz championed research, education, and public engagement. She helped organize the first national conference of women in political office for the Center for American Women and Politics in 1972, and later provided professional services to small businesses and startups in Russia, especially those owned by women.
“I have empathy for people,” Ms. Schmertz told a colleague at the Romanian-American Foundation in a 2018 video interview. “I’ve always felt badly for people who are hurt or poor or unfortunate or don’t have access to something.”
Ms. Schmertz was interested in voluntary foreign service, gun reform, and U.S.-China relations, and she lectured and appeared on TV shows and in dozens of newspapers. She worked with New York Gov. Hugh Carey on statewide initiatives of all kinds in the 1970s and was appointed by President Bill Clinton to head the Romanian-American Enterprise Fund in 1994.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, she worked for the Democratic National Committee, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the American Association of University Women. She spoke English, Dutch, Russian, and French, and served as a guide at the State Department’s first U.S. promotional exhibition in Moscow in 1959.
She lobbied for fair elections in South Africa in the 1990s, and pressed New York lawmakers to support the state’s medical aid in dying act until it recently passed. Colleagues praised her “vision, energy, and grit” and “integrity and long-term commitment” in online tributes.
One colleague said: “I feel so fortunate to have known her.”
Colleagues at the Romanian-American Foundation said in a tribute: “She helped shape not just an organization but a picture of what philanthropy in Romania could be: transparent, accountable, built on partnership, and dedicated to creating opportunity for all Romanians.”
From 1979 to 1992, Ms. Schmertz was the first woman to supervise corporate strategy and philanthropy at American Express in New York. She was also an honorary director of the Women’s Economic Roundtable and a former director at Prudential Financial Inc.
“She was extraordinary, formidable, deeply caring, and exceptionally committed to the people and causes that she believed in,” her daughter, Lexy, said. “Her hobby was her job, learning and exploring.”
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Ida Frederieke Schaap was born Feb. 24, 1935. Her family traveled from the Netherlands to Indonesia in 1939 and then to the United States to escape the war.
She was the first Jewish student to enroll in the old Stevens School for Girls in Germantown in 1940, was elected president of the student council and captain of the field hockey team, and graduated in 1952. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1956 and her master’s degree at Columbia University in 1960.
She also studied French political science at Sorbonne University in Paris and Russian at Middlebury College in Vermont. She married Herbert Schmertz in 1962 in Philadelphia, and they had a son, Anthony, and a daughter, Lexy. They divorced in 1976, and he died in 2018.
Ms. Schmertz was tough and direct, her family said, intelligent and loving. She liked to read and travel, and was an engaging conversationalist.
She lived in Washington D.C. after college, moved to New York in the 1970s, and hosted friends and colleagues from around the world in her Upper West Side apartment.She doted on her four grandsons and took them to museums and hockey games. “She met them where they were,” her daughter said.
She was a summer camp counselor for underserved children as a teen, loved cats, and supported the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For 30 years, she lived with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
“She was compassionate and caring,” her daughter said. Her son said: “She was devoted to her family.”
In addition to her children and grandsons, Ms. Schmertz is survived by two sisters and other relatives.
A private memorial service is to be held later.
Donations in her name may be made to Compassion & Choices, Box 485, Etna, N.H. 03750.
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