William R. Schmidt

December 29, 1948 – April 28, 2010

William R. Schmidt, XTAR, LLC Vice President, Government Services, died suddenly April 28 of a heart attack. He had been in his position for three years, with responsibility for the business development, sales, and marketing of XTAR’s unique X-band services to the civil and military sectors of the U.S. government.

“Bill was an essential member of the company’s senior management team,” said Denis Curtin, XTAR COO. “He was a personal friend as well as a trusted colleague and will be sorely missed by us all.”

Bill joined XTAR from ARTEL Inc., where he served as Director, Global Solutions.  Prior to joining ARTEL, Bill applied his expertise in management, strategic planning and business development to multiple clients as a Principal with Turner Consulting Services.  Previously, he moved his career into telecommunications, information technology and information security by joining Data Systems Analysts, Inc., as Director of Business Development, Federal Sector.

Bill began his career in aerospace and defense with the Link Division of Singer. He continued in positions of increasing management responsibility, working for other large multi-billion dollar multinationals such as Honeywell and Figgie International.  While at Honeywell, he led the team that won the largest Navy simulator procurement of $153 million.

Bill served three years as a U.S. Army Air Crewman after graduating from the University of Maryland with a BS in market management and operations research.

Bill will be remembered by his XTAR friends and colleagues as a man who lived life large. He was a devoted husband, friend and uncle who passionately supported many nephews and nieces, three of whom serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. He loved fine dining, race cars, annual skiing trips to Whistler in Canada with family and friends, and travel. His most recent travel exploit was a London to New York voyage on the venerable Queen Mary with his wife Candyce and close friends. Bill’s passing has left a void in the hearts of all of the family, friends and colleagues that he has left behind.