Humble Carpenter Secretly Saved All Of His Money His Whole Life So He Could Leave $3 Million To 33 Kids He Never Met
Julian Bohorquez | ShutterstockDale Schroeder, a carpenter from Des Moines, Iowa, never had the chance to go to college himself, so he decided to help others do so even when it felt impossible.
College is, of course, staggeringly expensive and out of reach for many of us. Tuition costs have actually more than doubled since the beginning of this century alone. This leaves a lot of promising young minds without access to the higher education they want to receive, or even need to do their dream jobs.
When the carpenter passed away, he left $3 million to 33 kids he'd never met.
Schroeder was a humble man who grew up poor, knew the value of a dollar, and never forgot it, according to a report from CBS. His frugality was legendary. He worked as a carpenter for the same company for 67 years, and was described by his friend, Steve Nielsen, as a "blue-collar, lunch pail kind of guy."
Nielsen said Schroeder lived a simple life. Shy and quiet, he was the kind of guy who had "work jeans" and "church jeans," and "went to work every day. Worked really hard. Was frugal. Like a lot of Iowans," he said.
Naturally, Schroeder's community assumed he didn't leave much behind when he passed away in 2005, and he had no family to claim any inheritance. That didn't stop him from secretly scrimping and saving his entire life so he could send kids to college after he died.
Nielsen, who was also Schroeder's lawyer, was one of the first to be told about his plans. He told local Des Moines news station KCCI, "He said, 'I never got the opportunity to go to college. So, I'd like to help kids go to college' ... Finally, I was curious and I said, 'How much are we talking about, Dale?' And he said, 'Oh, just shy of $3 million.' I nearly fell out of my chair."
Schroeder's fortune provided 33 students with college funding ranging from $5,000 grants to full-ride scholarships.
His friend Walt Tomenga said that it wasn't just nickels and dimes from his carpenter paychecks he was socking away. He'd also been holding out on cashing his years of Social Security checks. Tomenga said that when he passed, the stack of checks was an inch and a half thick, all waiting to be spent on young people's educations.
Schroeder was adamant that he wanted his money to go directly to students, not to an institution or charity, so Nielsen and Tomenga formed a 501(c)(3) of their own. With the help of an organization called Acing the Test, they developed a process of essays and interviews to decide which students would get help each year, and to ensure Schroeder's money reached those who needed it the most.
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One of those kids was Kira Conard. She wanted to be a therapist but had no means to pay for an education. She told KCCI the dilemma "almost made me feel powerless. Like, I want to do this. I have this goal, but I can't get there just because of the financial part."
She said that when she got the call that she had won one of Schroeder's scholarships that added up to an $80,000 full ride, she "broke down into tears immediately." Conard was just one of nearly three dozen students whose lives were changed by Schroeder's generosity between 2007, when the first round of scholarships went out, and 2015, when his $3 million fortune was finally fully spent.
A college education can change people's lives, but it is out of reach for so many due to exorbitant costs.
Although there are plenty of debates about whether it's worth it to attend college these days, and it's not the right step for everyone, there are still advantages to earning your degree. Unfortunately, Americans owe a collective $1.84 trillion in student loan debt, which puts a damper on any success they're able to find.
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Schroeder gave 33 students the chance to go to college and become the next generation of professionals without having to worry about debt at all. Now, the scholarship winners call themselves "Dale's Kids" and meet up regularly to celebrate their special bond.
Nielsen told them that Schroeder had just one simple request of them before he died. "All we ask is that you pay it forward," he said. "You can't pay it back, because Dale is gone, but you can remember him, and you can emulate him." That's good advice for all of us.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
