Career
In 1932, he founded American Phenolic Corporation (which became Amphenol) when he discovered that insulating plastic could effectively be used to produce tube sockets in a quicker and simpler method than using Bakelite or ceramic. Under his leadership, Amphenol developed and manufactured equipment for radios, military equipment during World World War II, and various industrial uses after the war. In 1941, Arthur J Schmitt founded the Fournier Institute of Technology in Lemont, Illinois to educate young men in Engineering.
In 1955, the Institute was closed, but The Schmitt Foundation continues to provide scholarships and fellowships at numerous Catholic-based universities in the Chicago and surrounding Great Lakes area, such as DePaul University and Saint Xavier University and the graduate schools at Loyola University Chicago, University of Notre Dame, and Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
The Foundation also supports scholarships at a handful of high schools. Schmitt turned his financial success into significant philanthropic efforts that continue to propagate his moral and ethical values.