Major General William Richard Schmidt (October 14, 1889 – July 18, 1966) was a decorated United States Army officer who spent most of World War II as commanding the 76th Infantry Division.

He graduated four years later on June 12, 1913, which led to him being commissioned as an officer, with the rank of second lieutenant, into the Infantry Branch of the United States Army on the same date.

Many of his classmates who he graduated alongside would, like Schmidt, attain high rank and become general officers in the years to come, during World War II.

Schmidt did not see combat in France on the Western Front during World War I and instead performed stateside duty at Schofield Barracks in Pearl Harbor, at Presidio of San Francisco and at Camp Fremont, California.

Schmidt was then transferred to the Third Army under command of Lieutenant General Geoffrey Keyes, his classmate from West Point, where he became the chief of staff on May 20, 1946.