Wayne Louis Schmidt, 89, recently of Wayside, died peacefully Friday morning, January 3, 2020, at Wayside Parkview Estates. Wayne was born May 11, 1930, in Town of Lawrence, Wisconsin, to Erma (Scheibe) and H. Harris Schmidt of Wrightstown, where he lived and attended school, graduating from Wrightstown High School, Class of 1948, and working for his father's various businesses. On February 3, 1951, he married Elaine Natzke of Wayside, Wisconsin, whom he'd met while at the Natzkes' farm installing DeLaval milking equipment for his father's dealership. In October of that year he joined the U.S. Air Force, serving for four years as Staff Sergeant, first at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, and then at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. Upon being discharged, he returned with his growing family to Wrightstown where he owned and operated a television and appliance business. In 1957 he moved his family and his business to Illinois, settling in the village of Buckley where he would remain until he and Elaine retired to Wayside in the autumn of 2019. Living in Buckley, Wayne and Elaine were active and involved members of Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran church where, in earlier years, he served on the Board of Elders. In 1967, Wayne was one of the Central Illinois District's delegates to the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod's national convention in New York City, returning as an observer in 1969 when the then biennial convention was held in Denver. In 1959, Wayne joined the staff of the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois–Champaign-Urbana, one of a handful of technicians working under Donald Bitzer. While there his team built the circuitry and equipment to run Dr. Bitzer's pioneering computer system PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) which changed the world with such developments and innovations as computer forums, message boards, e-mail, chat rooms, emoticons, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multi-player video games, including the earliest versions of Dungeons and Dragons. (PLATO would be immortalized as the computer HAL in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.) Among the projects during Wayne's years under Dr. Bitzer was helping to build, in 1964, prototypes of the world's first plasma screen, an orange-on-black monochrome version ubiquitous in early computers, later incorporated into the full-color plasma screen introduced by Fujitsu in 1992. When he left the U of I, Wayne had been working on the earliest builds of a display that would respond to human touch. In the early 1970's, Wayne decided on a major career change when he realized a childhood dream of becoming a 'cowboy' – joining the Teamsters and driving cross-country for Schneider of Green Bay for the next seventeen years, delivering truckloads of almost any product imaginable to destinations throughout the United States. It was a proud moment in his life when he was inducted into Schneider's Million Mile Club. Wayne is survived by his loving wife of nearly sixty-nine years, Elaine, Wayside Parkview Estates; and by his children Clyde, Missouri; Lynne Schmidt-Barlow, Ballwin, Missouri; Lisa (Patrick) Rock, Dwight, Illinois; Clynt, Maple, Wisconsin; LuAnn (Charles) O'Connor, Hot Springs, Arkansas; and Lori (Kevin) Fetters of Buckley, Illinois; eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He is further survived by his brothers Gene (Jean) Schmidt, Greenleaf, Wisconsin; and Lee (Sharon Puttmann) of Madison, Wisconsin; his sister Karen (Keith) Montanye, Pflugerville, Texas; and his sister-in-law Ruth Schmidt, Appleton, Wisconsin. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Ralph, and his son-in-law Rick Rascher. The funeral service for Wayne will be held at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, 8378 County Road W, Wayside, beginning at 2:00P.M. on Friday, January 10, with burial to follow in the church cemetery. Visitation for all friends and family will be on Friday at Zion–Wayside from 12:00 o'clock noon until time of service. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to a worthy cause of the donor's choice. Funeral arrangements by Nickel Funeral Home, Morrison; telephone 920-864-2418.