Inga Amelia Schmidt

Inga Amelia Hilleboe Schmidt, age 91, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, died in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 21, 2024.

Born August 23, 1932, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Guy Leonard Hilleboe and Mabel Tronnes Hilleboe, Inga was raised in Rutherford, New Jersey, and educated at Ohio Wesleyan University, where she received a BS in Home Economics (Business Track - then the only way for women to take Business courses). She was a member of the Phi Upsilon Omicron honor society and Delta Gamma sorority. She was an excellent student who also loved dancing, particularly the Jitterbug. 

After college, she moved to Philadelphia and worked as a buyer at Strawbridge & Clothier. At a Penn Medical School fraternity party, Inga extricated herself from an unpromising blind date and met Courtland Mercer Schmidt MD; in 1956 they were married and moved to Ann Arbor, where they raised their family. She also spent time each year with extended family and lifelong friends on Llewellyn Beach, St. Joseph Island, Ontario, and on Don Pedro Island, Florida.

Inga (known to all as “Ping”) was a positive person and true optimist every day of her life. She devoted a great deal of her life to raising her four children, and she was a loving, caring, and engaged mother and a devoted wife. Her focus on family was paramount, and she spent countless hours pitching softballs in the yard and driving children to sporting contests, music lessons, and other activities … as well as making dinner for six every night.

She had always wanted to use her Business degree, so in her 40s Ping seized an opportunity to co-own and co-manage “The Needlepoint Tree” in Ann Arbor. She was very proud of her achievements as a supplier to, and teacher of, the knitting and needlework community in Southeastern Michigan.

Ping loved talking with her many close friends, ice skating, reading voraciously, crushing the New York Times crossword puzzle, golfing at AAGO, ordering shrimp scampi and Pinot Grigio, listening to Ernie Harwell broadcast Tiger games, and researching her Norwegian heritage. A lifelong sports fan, she loved the Brooklyn Dodgers, Detroit Tigers, and University of Michigan Football – her favorite players were Jackie Robinson, Dick McAuliffe, and JJ McCarthy, respectively.

She is survived by her children Courtland Mercer Schmidt Jr. (Colleen Christian), Christopher Erwin Schmidt (Susan Moynihan), Peter Ochsner Schmidt (Jane Hamlin), and Amy Hilleboe Schmidt (Andrew McCuaig); by her beloved granddaughters Emma, Claire, Isabel, Abby (Ryland), Siobhan (Pete), Ivy (Jade), and Lida; and by her great-grandson Lincoln. Ping was also a loving and devoted aunt to many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband and by her sister, Donna Lorraine Hilleboe DeMuth, as well as by her spoiled dogs: Flicka, Muffin, Britta, Jenny, and Sayla. She is survived by her faithful and sweet golden retriever, Fiona.

Ping was a longtime parishioner at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor, where she served on the vestry, helped organize the parish’s sesquicentennial celebration, and supervised the crafting of needlepoint kneelers for the sanctuary. She prayed for good weather prior to long car trips, and for deliverance when driving on the metal gratings of the Mackinac Bridge.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that contributions be made in her name to ReproductiveFreedomForAll.org.

The family would like to thank the care teams and medical and hospice staffs of Capital Lakes, UW Hospital, Brighton Hospice, and Agrace Hospice for their remarkable care and endless kindness.

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