A professor of mathematics, Cooper D. Schmitt earned the BA from Mercersburg College in 1879 and the MA from the University of Virginia in 1884. He served as mathematics master at Pantops Academy from 1884 to 1889 and then joined UT as assistant professor of mathematics. Schmitt served as head of the Mathematics Department from 1889 to 1907. He was made a full professor in 1892. He taught classes, including eight sessions of the Summer School of the South (and served as bursar from 1890 to 1897 and registrar from June 1891 to September 1893) until 1907, when he became dean of the College of Liberal Arts. In 1910, while serving as dean and also continuing to teach mathematics, he was stricken in a lecture room of South College and died a few hours later at his home on White Avenue.
A memorial plaque commemorating his service as professor is located in the northeast stairwell of the Austin Peay Building, having been moved there from Science Hall when Science Hall was razed. A Melrose Residence Hall unit was named in his honor, and in 1968 the Cooper D. Schmitt Fellowship for study in international relations and world affairs was underwritten by a gift from the W. K. McClure Foundation. In 1987 the Schmitt family established the Cooper D. Schmitt Memorial Scholarships, which are available to outstanding undergraduates in the UT Mathematics Department. His son, Bernadotte Schmitt, graduated in the class of 1904 and was UT’s first Rhodes Scholar as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner.