Albert Henry Schilling 

Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service Obituary

Albert was born on December 6, 1943 and passed away on Thursday, October 24, 2019. He was a member of the National Honor Society, was an AFS student in Italy, on the Student Council and graduated from Mariemont High School in 1962. Hank was raised with his brother Bill in the charming Tudor-style village of Mariemont, Ohio where his father was a physician, with a year away at Camp Stoneman in Antioch, California where his father served in the Army Medical Corps during WWII. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating in memory of Hank to The MGH PSP and CBD Fund and mail to the Massachusetts General Hospital Development Office, 125 Nashua Street, Suite 540, Boston, MA 02114, Attention: K. Wojcicki.

Here is an extended obituary---

Obituary

Albert Henry Schilling, 75, died peacefully in Concord, MA surrounded by family, on October 24, 2019 after battling a long illness.

Hank was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 6, 1943, the first of two sons, to Albert Henry and Irene (Curd) Schilling (later Reid when she married John A. Reid after the untimely death of Albert Schilling at age 38.) Hank was raised with his brother Bill in the charming Tudor-style village of Mariemont, Ohio where his father was a physician, with a year away at Camp Stoneman in Antioch, California where his father served in the Army Medical Corps during WWII. He was a member of the National Honor Society, was an AFS student in Italy, on the Student Council and graduated from Mariemont High School in 1962.

Growing up Hank developed a passion for reading and all kinds of music; spent countless blissful hours outdoors with his friends and younger brother Bill exploring the banks of the Little Miami River with their beloved poodle, Caledonia, swimming with cousins and friends, inner-tubing and canoeing, playing tennis and golf. He enjoyed participating in Boy Scouts, where he became an Eagle Scout, and in Boys Nation and Buckeye Boys State, where he developed strong debating skills and won the Ohio extemporaneous debate competition.

Hank majored in history and earned his BA Cum Laude at Harvard in 1967, where he immensely enjoyed being a member of the Harvard Lampoon and forged close lifelong friendships. After teaching in the public schools and doing political organizing in Cincinnati, Hank went on to earn his Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1971, and his law degree from Rutgers University. He served as Director of Admissions at the Woodrow Wilson School before moving to Boston in 1973 to work on transportation, urban development and environmental law as Principal Environmental Officer for Boston Central Transportation Planning. While living in the Boston area Hank enjoyed hiking in the White Mountains, sailing on the Charles, flying gliders and small planes, and walking in Boston and Cambridge whilst getting to know his future wife and her young son, Christopher. Hank was married in 1975 to Victoria (Tia) G. Smith Anderson surrounded by family and friends in the meadow of her parents’ 1770 farmhouse in Bridgewater, NH by her father, the Rev. Charles W.F. Smith. Soon after, Hank, Tia and five year-old Christopher drove across country in a yellow Fiat, with an aluminum canoe given by his brother on the top, to Seattle, Washington where Hank joined the Battelle Institute Science and Government Study Center. He became its Director in 1981, leading work on environmental policy focused on radioactive waste management, and participated in the Colorado Keystone Center Policy Dialogs. Hank loved exploring the Pacific Northwest with his family, which grew to include a second son, Charlie, born in 1978. They lived in a close-knit neighborhood in Madrona, overlooking Lake Washington with families with young children who all became fast friends. Together they had hundreds of exciting adventures hiking, camping in the Cascade mountains and on the Olympic Peninsula, skiing downhill and cross country, sailing shared sailboats on Lake Washington and Puget Sound, exploring the San Juan Islands and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. Hank rode his bike to work every day as part of his training to achieve the feat of climbing Mount Rainier twice, and miraculously survived falling in a glacial crevasse. About fifteen years later he fulfilled his dream of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.

After nine years in Seattle, Hank moved with his family back to the East Coast to lead Battelle’s DC office and to be closer to extended family. He subsequently served at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C for six years directing its Offices of Legislative Analysis and Pollution Prevention and Planning, for which he earned several awards. He also taught Environmental Policy at American University. He greatly enjoyed exploring all D.C. had to offer with his family.

Hank became an expert on energy sustainability and climate change and devoted his working life to environmental protection. In 1991, Hank was called to be the Managing Director of GE Energy Financial Services in Stamford. For the next twenty-one years his work focused on risk management, environmental due diligence for power projects with a major focus on renewable energy and water projects, centered in North America, South and East Asia, Australia, Central and South America and Africa. Hank was recognized as an expert on the Equator Principles, enjoyed serving on the G-8 Task Force on Renewable Energy, participating in the Yale University Renewable Energy and Law Network and being on the Executive Board for the Greening of Industry Coalition. He also authored a chapter on “Energy Efficiency” in Sustainable Environmental Law.

Whilst living in Connecticut and Massachusetts Hank loved being outdoors with family and friends - sailing on Long Island Sound and in Maine, and spending as much time as possible with them at the beloved old family house in on Bridgewater Hill, New Hampshire; enjoying river and pond fishing, swimming and paddling on Newfound Lake in the kayaks and row boat he built, climbing in the White Mountains, reading books and the NYT, drinking strong coffee (and Scotch), amusing all who would listen with his wry sense of humor, meditating and above all, playing with his grandchildren, nephews and nieces. He also enjoyed trips with family to England and Europe, summer trips back to Seattle and California to see friends and relations, and trips with his brother to Nova Scotia and to Glacier/Waterton National Parks. Hank was a devoted son, brother husband, father, grandfather, brother-in-law, uncle, nephew, cousin and friend. His three young grandchildren were the lights of his life, buoying him up with their love and exuberance as his health tragically and inexorably declined.

Hank gave much to the communities in which he lived – he served on the Seattle Mayor’s Citizen Panel on Executive Reorganization. He and Tia greatly enjoyed helping build houses for Habitat for Humanity of Coastal Fairfield County, of which he was Board Chair, with the Episcopal Bridge Builders Coalition, of which he was Co-Chair. He also greatly enjoyed mentoring in the Stamford public schools, interviewing Harvard University applicants, fundraising for the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, and serving on the Vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport, CT where he and Tia lived after their sons were grown, until retiring to Concord, Massachusetts in 2014.

Hank is survived by his wife Victoria (Tia), his children Christopher Anderson and wife Makenzie Brookes of Martha’s Vineyard, and Charles Schilling and wife Lindsey Andrews Schilling of New York City. He dearly loved his three grandchildren: March and Hartwin Anderson-Brookes, and Piper Schilling. He is also survived by his brother, William Curd Schilling (Casper, Wyoming); his step-sisters Joan Reid Bergsund (Tiburon, CA) and Marilyn Reid Bragdon (Petaluma, CA); sister-in-law Ivy Smith MacMahon (D’Arcy) and Ann Lee Smith Bugbee (Richard) and many beloved cousins, nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Hank’s life will take place in early summer of 2020 on Bridgewater Hill in Bridgewater, NH. When plans are finalized, the information will be posted on www.DeeFuneralHome.com.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating in memory of Hank to The MGH PSP and CBD Fund and mail to the Massachusetts General Hospital Development Office, 125 Nashua Street, Suite 540, Boston, MA 02114, Attention: K. Wojcicki. Donations can also be made online at giving.massgeneral.org – please indicate that the gift is a gift in memory of Hank. Donations can also be made to the A. Henry Schilling Fund for Affordable Housing at Island Housing Trust, P.O Box 779, West Tisbury, MA 02575, or to Habitat for Humanity.

Arrangements are under the care of