Remembrances
Lynda Hollister Wheelwright Schmidt
BLUE HILL, MAINE—Lynda Hollister Wheelwright Schmidt passed away unexpectedly from natural causes on October 23, 2023, in Blue Hill, Maine. Born on July 29, 1931, in Peking, China, she lived a robust and full life filled with the love of books, her family, and her family of patients she worked with during her life as a psychotherapist.
Lynda spent much of her youth on the family cattle ranch, the Hollister Ranch, north of Santa Barbara, Calif., where she worked alongside the cowboys on round-ups, branding, and all the other hard work that life required. Her grandparents raised her with a respect for work and the value of the intellect.
Meanwhile, Joe and Jane Wheelwright, her parents, were in Europe working with the psychoanalyst and author Carl Jung, and establishing themselves as practitioners of his philosophy.
When they returned to the United States the Wheelwrights retrieved Lynda and her brother John, and brought them to Marin County, where they settled and worked for the majority of their lives.
Lynda met her German husband, Klaus Schmidt, when he immigrated to the U.S. and was invited to stay with her family. Six months after they met, they married.
Lynda lived the first portion of her life with Klaus in California working as a psychoanalyst. She wrote several books pertaining to her work and to growing up on a large ranch. She lectured and taught at San Francisco’s Jungian Institute, created by her parents.
In their mid-fifties, and ready to quiet their busy lives, Lynda and Klaus built a home on the coast of Maine. Klaus successfully retired, but Lynda, a lone Jungian analyst in upper New England, ended up having a thriving new business filled with both old and new clients. Even Covid did not deter her from her work.
Their life together was filled with travel, oftentimes with their daughters Karen and Claudia. Any spare minute of the day Lynda filled with reading, walking on her rocky beach or playing with one of their German shepherd dogs, all named Juno.
Klaus passed away on February 3, 2017, and rather than becoming a recluse or leaving the rough New England winters, Lynda hunkered down and became a real member of her community. Asked if she would move back to California after Klaus’s death, her answer was “absolutely not!! This is my life and I love it here.”
Lynda is survived by her brother, John Wheelwright, daughters Karen Calley and Claudia Lewis, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
There will be no public services. The family will have a private memorial at the family plot in Santa Barbara, per Lynda’s and Klaus’s wishes.
A celebration of Lynda’s life will take place next spring. Please email your interest to LyndaSchmidtMemorial@gmail.com.
