Robert Wayne Schmittberger Service Information

R. Wayne Schmittberger, age 74, of Holland, PA passed away on February 19 at home. Wayne was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 9, 1949 to parents Lee Shafer (Lee Bobin) and Robert Schmittberger (grandparents Imogene Shafer, Paul D. Shafer, Flossie Schmittberger, and Oswald Schmittberger). He was the proud grandnephew of Raymond Shafer, former Governor of Pennsylvania, and great grandson of Maximilian Schmittberger, former Chief of Police of New York City. He had fond childhood memories playing at his grandparents’ farm in New Jersey and doing chemistry experiments for fun at home.

Wayne graduated top of his class from Bridgewater-Raritan High School West in 1967. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Yale University and New York University School of Law.  At Yale, he decided to major in French because he felt it was his weakest subject, demonstrating his perpetual curiosity and love of learning. During summers, he enjoyed playing beach volleyball and working at a yacht club on Long Island, where he would occasionally catch helicopter rides back to Manhattan to save time. While at law school, he discovered his passion for board games. He spent much of his time playing chess in Washington Square Park, all-night Go at the New York Go Club, and evenings at the Olive Tree Cafe playing Scrabble.

He quickly pivoted to what would become an entire career doing what he loved: creating games and puzzles. He was the decades-long Editor-in-Chief of Games Magazine, World of Puzzles, and Zigzag, and he contributed to numerous other publications. He invented the board game Orient Express and the mobile app game Square Routes. He was an accomplished author, writing several books including two on trivia as well as the logic puzzle series Montague Island Mysteries. He was a brilliant man with an off-the-charts IQ who seemed to remember every fact he ever learned and know how to solve any math problem presented to him.

Wayne enjoyed complex board games, skiing (even in whiteout conditions), cooking pesto from scratch, eating a good medium-rare steak, watching his favorite sports teams and tv shows, going to the movies, reading science fiction and fantasy novels, and playing Go and Shogi. He more recently enjoyed playing bridge and 18XX railroad games with friends locally and around the world. Most of all, he loved spending time with his daughters and grandchildren and playing games with them.

He is survived by his two children, Teresa Kim Harrold (spouse Walton Harrold) and Bonnie Lee Marlow (spouse Danny Marlow), his two sisters, Linda Reed and Debbie Matechak, and three beautiful grandchildren, Nolan, Riley, and Ethan.

A celebration of life will be held on Wednesday, February 28 at Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home, 800 Newtown-Richboro Rd., Richboro, PA 18954. Relatives and friends are invited to pay their condolences beginning at 11:00 AM. His memorial service will start at 11:30 AM.

Generous as always, this past holiday season, Wayne requested charitable donations rather than presents to the following organizations: the Nature Conservancy, the Humane Society, the United Service Organizations, and the American Cancer Society. In lieu of flowers, he would be honored for charitable donations to be made in his name to any of those organizations.

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