Alex Schilt

1941 - 2025

Alex Schilt
03/04/1941 - 07/09/2025

Alexander Frank "Corky" Schilt-father, teacher, mentor, and friend-died peacefully at home on July 9, 2025. He was 84.

Born in 1941 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Schilt became a leader in Texas higher education, serving as the president of University of Houston Downtown from 1980-1987 and later returning as chancellor of the University of Houston System from 1989 to 1995.

Alex attended high school and college in Laramie, Wyoming. By his own account, he was never a straight-A student, but his life-long passion for leadership was evident from the beginning. He served as the student body president at Laramie High School and later became the liaison between his fraternity brothers at Alpha Tau Omega and the dean of students' office at University of Wyoming.

After college, Alex followed in the footsteps of his father, Louis F. Schilt, by pursuing an advanced degree and a career in higher education. The elder Schilt had risen from shepherd to county agent to assistant director of the University of Wyoming Agricultural Extension, earning a master's degree along the way. Through his father, Alex met a variety of university administrators who became mentors, including a young psychology graduate student named George Hamm (later president of UT-Tyler). When Hamm left Wyoming to become dean of students at Arizona State University, he encouraged his mentee to apply to Arizona's PhD program in psychology.

In Arizona, Alex met two powerful allies: his future wife, Charlotte McCluskey (née Snyder), and Arizona State University's Vice President for Academic Affairs, John Ryan. Charlotte, an English major and talented writer, helped Alex survive the dissertation process. Ryan, future president of Indiana University, recruited Alex for his first post-graduate job as dean of students at Indiana University Southeast.

In southern Indiana, Alex and Charlotte welcomed their two children: Paige Eileen Schilt and Kristen Rose Schilt. The family relocated to Richmond, Indiana, when Schilt was appointed as the first chancellor of a new regional campus, Indiana University East. In later years, Alex liked to brag that he was still the youngest chancellor in IU system history and bemoan that he didn't beat the record for youngest university president set by his academic idol, Robert Maynard Hutchins, who became the fifth president of the University of Chicago at age 30.

The family moved to Texas in 1981, and Alex embraced the challenge of promoting higher education in the heart of a large and diverse city. As president of UH-Downtown, he inspired city stakeholders to invest in the campus at One Main Street and the predominantly Black and Brown students it served.

Throughout his life, he remained an enthusiastic Houston booster. He left the city only briefly, serving as president of Eastern Washington University from 1987-1989. When he returned to the city as chancellor of the University of Houston system, he spearheaded a successful $350 million capital campaign, the largest in UH history at that time.

Alex and Charlotte divorced in 1983. In 1994, while still chancellor, Alex began coming out as gay to close friends and family. In an era when university leaders were uniformly straight and married, Alex occupied a tenuous position. When he resigned in May 1995, he began to focus on the personal life that he had neglected in pursuit of his career.

At the age of 54, Alex began an entirely new second act, building a gay social life with several different long-term boyfriends and discovering a love of dance clubs and techno music. He switched from dark suits to colorful shirts. He joined the faculty of the UH College of Education and began teaching courses in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

Alex invested whole-heartedly in the success of the students in his graduate seminars, many of whom were working professionals earning advanced degrees on evenings and weekends. He delighted in providing the kind of mentoring he had received but widened the net to include women and Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ students. Until the last days of his life, he maintained close connections with many of his former students and reveled in their career successes.

He was immensely proud of his daughters, both of whom followed his path by earning PhDs and working in higher education. He was unabashedly boastful about their achievements, keeping large stacks of their published works on his coffee table to share with visitors.

Alex loved to travel and was frequently accompanied by his beloved niece, Sue Van Newkirk, and his great-nephew, Kyle Van Newkirk. As Alex's health began to wane, Sue took on the herculean task of managing care for a mischievous octogenarian who still wanted to dance the night away, even when neuropathy and a broken ankle left him increasingly immobile.

Alex often advised his mentees to sacrifice everything in pursuit of career success, but the real lesson of his life was just the opposite: have fun, find balance, cultivate a personal life, dance often.

Alex is survived by Paige and Kristen, his daughter-in-law Katy Koonce, his granddaughter Alison Schilt-Koonce, Kristen's partner Red Tremmel, and a host of nieces and nephews. The family plans a public memorial in the fall.