Born in Louisville, Kentucky on August 27, 1925, Albert J. Schmidt came of age between the two World Wars. The Great Depression hit his family hard, and the Great Ohio River Flood of 1937 severely damaged the family home, resulting in their move. World War II clouded his high school years. Schmidt enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943 and won a Rector Scholarship to DePauw University, where he completed his freshman year before being called to duty. He spent most of 1944 in radio operator school. In 1945–46, he served with the 13th Army Air Forces in New Guinea and the Philippines, where he taught emergency communication procedures and engaged in air-sea rescue operations.

Schmidt was among the crowd of veterans who returned to college campuses in the autumn of 1946. After graduating from DePauw in 1949, he entered the doctoral program in history at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of London (1952–53) and received his Ph.D. in early modern British history in 1953.

Schmidt taught history at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa from 1953–65 and at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut from 1965-90, where he served as the Arnold J. Bernhard Professor of History. He also chaired the UB History Department, served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, vice president of Academic Affairs, and from 1978-90, professor of law.

Schmidt retooled himself on several occasions. In 1960–62, he studied Russian history and language at Indiana University’s Russian and East European Institute and at Moscow University. In 1974, he participated in Harvard Business School’s program in educational management. He buttressed his teaching of Soviet law by attending the New York University Law School in 1981–82.

Schmidt retired from teaching in 1990 but continued to engage in historical research and scholarship for several more decades.