Ron Schmeits
First Vice President, National Rifle Association
Ronald Schmeits is first vice president of the National Rifle Association of America. A New Mexico resident, Schmeits has been an NRA Life Member for 18 years and a Benefactor Member since 2005.
Elected to the NRA Board of Directors in 2000, he currently serves as chairman of the Membership Committee; chairman of the Investment Oversight Committee; vice-chairman of the Finance Committee; vice chairman of the Publications Policies Committee; and is a member of the Audit Committee and the Meeting Site Selection Committee. In addition, he serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees for the NRA Whittington Center, a 33,300-acre premiere shooting and hunting facility in Raton, New Mexico.
Schmeits is a member of the NRA Heritage Society, a committed supporter and sponsor of Friends of NRA, and an active member of a variety of civic groups and community service organizations including Elks and Rotary. A recreational shooter, an advocate of all competitive shooting disciplines and a avid hunter of all species, he is a Life Member of the Whittington Center Gun Club; a Founding Member of the New Mexico Wildlife Foundation, and a member of the Single Action Shooting Society, the Amateur Trapshooting Association, Ducks Unlimited, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, MVACA and the Boy Scouts of America’s Philmont Inspection Team.
Long active in politics, Schmeits worked closely with New Mexico’s governor and legislature to pass the Concealed Handgun Carry Act of 2003. He has served on the Governor’s Business Advisory Committee under four different administrations – both Republican and Democrat – and he continues to maintain a personal and professional relationship with Governor Richardson on various issues relating to Second Amendment rights, water distribution, investments and business. He was appointed by the governor to serve as director of the U.S.-Canadian River Compact Commission, which controls water flowage from northeastern New Mexico within the state and into Oklahoma and Texas. From 1976 to 1980, he served as mayor of Jordan, Minnesota.
Schmeits now serves as president, CEO and director of International Bank in Raton, New Mexico; CEO and chairman of the board of International Bank, Trinidad, Colorado; chairman of the board and director of Farmers and Stockmens Bank in Clayton, New Mexico; and vice president and director of Raton Capital Corporation in Raton, New Mexico. He is a past president and current member of the New Mexico Bankers Association, a past president and member of the Raton Chamber of Commerce and director of the University of New Mexico Foundation Finance Committee.
A Nebraska native, Schmeits attended the University of Nebraska and holds an MBA in Bank Management from Rutgers University.
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