Carl Balzer "Cully" Schmidt was a journalist and the editor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Schmidt was born in Waterloo (Ontario) on March 9, 1911, the third of four children to Lydia Catherine Burghardt and Carl Heinrich Eckhardt (“Charles Henry Edward”) Schmidt. On October 7, 1936, Schmidt married Margaret Elizabeth Lockhart. The couple had two children: Margaret Jane and John Alexander.

Schmidt began working as a paper carrier for the Kitchener-Waterloo Record as a boy and started writing as a journalist at the age of 17. He went on to move through various roles in the editorial department before being named editor-in-chief of the newspaper in 1968, at the age of 56. Nicknamed the "Iron Duke," Schmidt held the role until his retirement in 1975.

During his youth, Schmidt served as a player and team representative in the Ontario Hockey Association and the Ontario Rugby Football League, curling player and controlling body of the Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Club, and president of the Athletic Association of Kitchener and Waterloo. Schmidt was also president of the Kitchener Musical Society, the operating body of the Kitchener Concert Band, and a founding member of the Western Ontario Newspaper Awards in 1952 (renamed the Ontario Newspaper Awards in 2004).

Cully Schmidt died in Waterloo on September 21, 2006, at 95.