Benjamin Schuttler wanted to change the world by improving access to education for students of limited means. In his travels to other countries, he saw that many children did not have the opportunity to attend school. Schuttler believed education was the key to a better life and was working on a plan to create an organization to fund educational programs globally.
“His big idea, on which he wrote his graduate school application to Harvard and Wharton, was to establish a fund, much like the Gates Foundation, where donors could contribute and where education proposals would be received and evaluated,” said Schuttler’s mother, Deborah Sudbury of Atlanta. “Highly skilled individuals would review the proposals and determine which ones could be scaled to serve large amounts of children. Benji had been all over the world, working with people in many countries, and he saw the great need for more educational opportunities. He wanted to help provide those opportunities.”
Schuttler, 27, died Nov. 1 of complications from a serious car accident in 2015. His family said he had undergone 20 surgeries in the past 11 months due to the accident.
“He had a short life, but he packed a lot into it,” Sudbury said. “He knew what he wanted to accomplish, and he was well on his way to making his plans and dreams reality.”
Benjamin Christopher Isaacs “Benji” Schuttler was born on July 23, 1989, to Deborah Sudbury and Bernd Schuttler. He was raised in Atlanta and attended Atlanta International School from age four through high school, where he was active in theater, sports and Model United Nations and won numerous academic awards. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and was a member of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business. He was also involved with a variety of social causes at the university, including the Social Impact Consulting Group, the Penn International Business Volunteers and various student mentoring and coaching programs. He studied and worked abroad in Senegal, Tanzania, Germany, France, Switzerland, Greece and Korea, among others.
Kevin Glass, headmaster at Atlanta International School, described Schuttler as “one of the extraordinary individuals who had the ability to shape the 21st century for the better.”
“The thing that sticks with me the most is that he really, really loved to do good, to make a difference,” Glass said. “He was fiercely committed to helping others. The loss of Benji is, of course, a huge loss to his family and the school, but it is also a loss to the world. He’d already done so many positive things in his short life, so just imagine what he could have done with the rest of his life.”
Schuttler was a consultant with Boston Consulting Group and had worked for the company in its New York, Athens, Greece, and Philadelphia offices. He had recently enrolled in graduate school in a joint Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Policy program between the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Harvard.
Bruce Holley, senior partner and managing director of Boston Consulting Group, called Schuttler “an agent for change.”
“You immediately got a sense of his incredible potential when you met him and worked with him,” Holley said. “He was one of those people who make can make things happen. He was wicked smart with much empathy for people and situations, and that along with his great intellect made it possible for him to accomplish amazing things.”
In addition to Schuttler’s parents, survivors include a brother, Will, of Atlanta, a graduate student at Georgia Tech; grandmother Judy Sudbury of Wausau, Wisconsin; and several aunts and uncles and great aunts and uncles. A private graveside service was held Nov. 11 at Crest Lawn Memorial Park. A memorial service was scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 13 at Atlanta International School. The family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Benjamin Schuttler Scholarship Fund at Atlanta International School to help deserving students attend the school.
