I think we can all agree that the debts incurred when attending college are usually significant.
If you’re a parent, you’ll know all about saving up to help send your kid to get their education. You’ll likely also know how much trouble that can be.
Dale Schroeder, a carpenter from Iowa, knew, in any case. As a young man, he wanted to go to college, but his family couldn’t afford it.
In the end, things turned out okay for Dale; he became an incredibly hard-working carpenter and earned good money. He decided that if he ever had kids, he’d ensure he had enough money to send them to college. With that in mind, he began saving every dollar he could.
According to Steve Nielsen, Dale’s friend and attorney, he worked for the same company in Des Moines for 67 years.
“[He] went to work every day, worked really hard, was frugal like a lot of Iowans…. He had church jeans and work jeans.”
As fate would have it, Dale never did create a family of his own. That, combined with the fact that he lived an extremely frugal life (he only had two pairs of jeans at any given time) meant that by the time Dale came to retire, he had accrued some $3 million in his bank account.
As he grew older, Dale began to wonder what would happen to his small fortune if and when he passed away.
An attorney told him that he would lose it all if he passed without a recognized heir, and so Dale decided to do something about it.
With the advice of the attorney, Dale set up a scholarship fund to help disadvantaged kids go to college. When he then passed away in 2005, the fund immediately became active.
One of the people who could attend college thanks to Dale was Kira Conrad. Unfortunately, her family couldn’t afford to send her to college, but then got a call from Dale’s attorney, Steve. He told her that Kira that Schroeder’s fund would cover her $80,000 tuition bill.
“For a man that would never meet me…to give me, basically, a full ride to college…. That’s incredible. That doesn’t happen,” she said.
In 2019, 14 years after his dad, Dale’s savings ran out.
Remarkably, by the time the fund was empty, Dale had post-humously sent 33 kids to college! That’s 33 people who had the opportunity to pursue their dreams, purely thanks to one man’s charity and selfless heart.
Over the years, Dale’s generosity has inspired millions.
“All he asked was that you pay it forward. You can’t pay it back ’cause Dale’s gone. But you can remember him, and you can emulate him,” Steve said.
Stories like this simply bring tears to my eyes. Why can’t more human beings be like Dale?
Share this article if you, too, want to pay your respects to this amazing man!
