Gerald R. Schmidt was born in 1937 in Chicago. He earned a B Arch from the U of Illinois in 1966, & was licensed in 1972. He earned an MA Theol from Franciscan U of Steubenville in 1996. He keeps a timeline of historic events concerning Royal Pomerania, specifically, and Poland generally. He spent many years exploring religious life and has been a voracious student of Polish history since he discovered he was of Polish descent at age 8.