[1] He attended Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School and Albany Military Academy and graduated M.B.A. from Bryant University.

In June 1970,[3] he defeated the incumbent State Senator D. Clinton Dominick III in the Republican primary.

On July 29, 1987, federal prosecutors accused Schermerhorn of having taken a bribe in 1984 from Dominick Lofaro, an ex-mafioso-turned-informer.

[12] On July 2, 1991, he was released from Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery, and transferred to the Brooklyn Community Corrections Center.

He died on June 21, 1995, at his home in Newburgh, New York, of throat cancer;[14] and was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in New Windsor.