True story of Iowa man who paid for college educations for dozens of people

Claim:

Dale Schroeder of Iowa used his savings to send 33 students to college.

Judgement:

The heartwarming story of Dale Schroeder, an Iowa carpenter who used his savings to send 33 students to college, came to light in 2019 when local news outlet KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa, and CBS News published his story.

Since then, the true claim that Schroeder sent dozens of students to college after his death has resurfaced on social media. In November 2019, his story surfaced on Reddit, nearly 15 years after his death, and in October 2023, a viral post about Schroeder’s generosity from the popular Instagram account @pubity has garnered nearly 575,000 likes, as of this writing.

Schroeder’s profound generosity only became apparent after his death. The carpenter, who worked for Moehl Millwork in Des Moines for 67 years, led a modest life. He grew up in a poor family, never married, had no children, and lived a modest life until his death in 2005. According to various reports, when Schroeder died, he left behind two pairs of jeans — one for work and one for the church — and an old Chevrolet truck.

He had also secretly amassed “just under” $3 million in savings.

Snopes reached out Dale was a quiet man, and he …

Several years before Schroeder’s death, Nielsen recalled the conversation he had with his client about what to do with his savings if he died: “He said, ‘I never had a chance to go to college, so I want to help kids go to college.'”

Because there were no direct living descendants, Schroeder’s request led to the creation of the nonprofit Dale Schroeder Memorial Scholarship, which funded the college educations of 33 unknown individuals for 14 years, from 2005 to 2019. According to the application guidelines:

The Dale Schroeder Memorial Scholarship was established to provide scholarships to students who are legal residents of the state of Iowa, live in an Iowa community with a population of 1 to 10,000, and who are attending one of the following universities: University of Iowa, Iowa State University, or University of Northern Iowa.

Scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement, leadership, school activities, community/volunteer activities, financial and work history. Scholarships are awarded without regard to race, creed, color, religion, sex or national origin. Recipients are identified by independent reviewers.

The group of recipients proverbially doff their collective hats and affectionately refer to themselves as “Dale’s kids,” as a mark of respect for the life-changing impact of Schroeder’s posthumous benevolence.

Since Schroeder’s story became public, several recipients of the Dale Schroeder Memorial Scholarship have spoken out publicly, highlighting the important educational and personal opportunities that the woodworker’s generosity made possible.

In 2020, scholarship recipient Tanysha Truax, who holds degrees from the University of Iowa and Vanderbilt University and now works as a licensed therapist, told Iowa Magazine, “I think back to how fortunate I was to have found Dale’s scholarship and the wonderful people he often trusted with his legacy,” adding, “I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without the scholarship and the experiences it has provided me.”

Jenna Herr, another scholarship recipient who earned her master of business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the University of Iowa’s Tippie Magazine in 2020, “This scholarship gave me the freedom and security to dream. It gave me the community and guidance I needed to grow, and the confidence and pride to lead.”

With the scholarship fund managed by Schroeder’s friends, former Iowa State Rep. Walt Tomenga and his wife, Judy Tomenga, many of the recipients have expressed their gratitude to the people who made Schroeder’s scholarship fund a reality. According to Tippie Magazine:

Herr grew up in a single-parent household after her mother was incarcerated. Then, at 16, she became a single parent herself. “Walt and Judy Tomenga became like a second set of parents to me,” she said. “I visited their home, I spent vacations with them, they sent care packages, we talked on the phone and identified strategies and resources to manage academic and educational stress.”

“I grew up in a single-parent household and I had three older sisters, so paying for the four of us was never an option,” Kira Conrad, another recipient of Schroeder’s college fund from Iowa, told KCCI in 2019. “For a man who would never meet me to actually give me a full scholarship to college is unbelievable. That doesn’t happen.”

Based on reports from reliable sources, such as CBS News and local Iowa news stations, and personal testimonies from the scholarship recipients, we have rated the claim that Schroeder used his savings to send 33 students to college as “true.”

Snopes previously reported on other charitable acts, including MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, giving away $16.5 billion to nonprofits, and claims that U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders raised money for charities in Vermont by selling clothing featuring a photo of himself from 2021 Inauguration Day.