Martin C. Schnitzer, 85, died Thursday, Dec. 23 in Fairhope.
He graduated from Fairhope High School and had a lifelong love of the area. He attended Phillips Exeter, University of the South and Mexico City College before getting Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Alabama. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Florida.
He was a professor of international business at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., for 43 years and authored 22 books. He served as economics advisor to the Governor of Virginia and Presidents Nixon and Ford. He also was a member of the U.S. East-West Trade Commission.
He lectured at the Stockholm School of Economics and the Oskar Lange Academy of Economics in Poland, the Central Planning Institute in Warsaw, Poland and the Karl Marx University of Economics in Budapest, Hungary. He was a former editor of the Virginia Social Science Journal and was listed in Who’s Who in the United States and Who’s Who in the World. He was responsible for the development of exchange programs of faculty between Virginia Tech and Poland.
Of all these accomplishments, he was most proud of his family.
Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Joan Brown Schnitzer; three daughters, Melanie Hammet (Lynne Nygaard), Meredith Portman and Marcy Schnitzer (Frank Frey); and one granddaughter, Brianna Portman.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 30 at St. James Episcopal Church in Fairhope.
The family requests memorial donations be made to Mercy Medical Development Office, P.O. Box 1090, Daphne, AL 36532.
Arrangements are by Wolfe-Bayview Funeral Homes & Crematory Inc., Fairhope.
