Robert Schmertz (artist)

Robert Watson Schmertz (March 4, 1898 – June 7, 1975) was a Pittsburgh-based architect and folk musician whose music has been covered by Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bill and Gloria Gaither, The Statler Brothers, The Cathedrals, Dailey & Vincent, the River City Brass Band, and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound. Born in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Schmertz attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he wrote the Carnegie Tartans' fight song, "Fight for the Glory of Carnegie," and played the banjo in a jazz orchestra; after he graduated with an architecture degree in 1921, Schmertz designed buildings. He taught at Carnegie for more than thirty-five years before his retirement.

As a folk musician, Schmertz released four albums, with his third, Sing Oh! The City Oh!: Songs of Early Pittsburgh, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Pittsburgh's founding; a reviewer for Keystone Folklore Quarterly called it "tuneful and well-done in the folk tradition". Before his death, Schmertz completed a book of his songs, but died before it published. Ten days after he suffered a stroke, Schmertz died on June 7, 1975.

Early life

Schmertz was born on March 4, 1898, in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After he completed studies at Peabody High School, where he met his future wife, Mildred, Schmertz attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (today, Carnegie Mellon University). In May 1917 Schmertz, dressed in "light flannel trousers, a girl's middy blouse and a small white hat," was arrested after he stood outside a theater and encouraged persons exiting the theater to join the navy as, according to Schmertz, a part of an initiation ritual to join a fraternity; he was charged with mocking the uniform but a magistrate later dismissed the charge.