Donor Stories

Through gift annuities, retired schoolteacher continues to impact students' lives

For retired schoolteacher Vern T. Kraushaar '53, understanding the benefits of a charitable gift annuity with DePauw is as easy as A, B, C.

Over the last eight years, Kraushaar has given a total of $70,000 to establish six charitable gift annuities with DePauw. His gifts will fund a scholarship—one that will help fulfill the goals of academic excellence and a richly diverse student body, as outlined in DePauw's strategic plan, Securing Our Legacy.

In exchange for each gift, DePauw provides him with a guaranteed, fixed stream of income for life. He plans to fund another set of annuities to bring his total to $100,000 and notes that funding gift annuities is not hard to do at all.

"It really appealed to me that I could build up my donations a little each year without greatly depleting my estate," Kraushaar, 74, says. "My gift annuities were paying a good interest when CDs were way down. I'm earning 7 percent and getting a good charitable deduction, and a substantial portion of each payment is tax-free.

"Rather than making a big gift when I die, I liked the idea of gradually giving money to DePauw while I could still benefit from that money."

Kraushaar grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn Heights and graduated in a high school class of 38. He found DePauw's bigger size appealing, and his membership in Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity important in developing life skills.

"Our housemother gave lessons in etiquette before the professors would come over," remembers Kraushaar, a fraternity brother of best-selling novelist John Jakes '53. The fraternity "helped me with my social skills. DePauw was just a tremendous learning experience for me."

His parents were active in parents' clubs and enjoyed parents' weekends on campus. Every time his father, the mayor of Brooklyn Heights, came to visit, he brought baskets of homegrown hothouse tomatoes to pass out.

At DePauw, Kraushaar's head led him in one direction, while his heart yearned for another.

He served as a playground counselor during high school and discovered he enjoyed working with children. He also idolized his high school Latin and music teachers—fun, engaging instructors who often hosted groups of students in their homes. Kraushaar realized he wanted to be a schoolteacher, too.

But his father insisted he become a lawyer because there was "no money" in teaching. "In those days, you did what your dad wanted," he says.

So he majored in political science, with an emphasis on pre-law, at DePauw. He graduated from law school at what would become Case Western Reserve University and passed the Ohio bar. He was promptly drafted.

"Luckily, nobody was shooting at the time," he quips.

Kraushaar spent 18 months reviewing court-martials in Frankfurt, Germany (and touring the country in a small car he bought with other lawyers in his unit). His stint in the service made him realize that life was too short to live someone else's dream. Back home, he took education courses while working for his father.

After earning his master's degree in education, Kraushaar taught in the Parma (Ohio) school system for 27 years. He was named a Jennings Scholar for outstanding teaching and, like the high school teachers he idolized, was highly involved in his students' lives.

Drawing on his political science background from DePauw, Kraushaar taught mainly about U.S. government. He served as the Valley Forge High School representative for Close Up, an acclaimed nonpartisan citizenship educational program that allows students and their teachers to study government up close and personal for a week at a time in Washington, D.C.

Kraushaar hosted students in his home "lots of times," was active on the board of directors of the local YMCA, and was instrumental in starting the first high school Red Cross blood drive in the Cleveland area. When he retired, the city of Parma issued a proclamation honoring him for contributing greatly to student life.

Today Kraushaar, who never married, rises early and walks five-to-seven miles a day. Having read "all the heavy stuff" during his teaching days, he indulges himself with Jakes' historical fiction and detective and spy novels. He divides his time between homes in Ohio, Florida, and his favorite, a place on Georgian Bay in Ontario.

Every time he drove through Buffalo, N.Y., on his way to Canada, Kraushaar would stop and have dinner with his fraternity brother, the late Donald L. Tollefson '53, who was also a teacher and single. "We often talked about how we'd like to give to DePauw, maybe establish a scholarship," he remembers.

Now, with the help of his gift annuities, the former teacher is making that scholarship a reality and will continue to impact students' lives long after he's gone.