A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST

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Walter Schmitt, born August 8, 1913, died January 18, 2008, at 94, is a first-generation American. His father Adam, b.1868-d.1960, immigrated from Germany, his mother from Czechoslovakia. He grew up in his father's blacksmith shop in Gresham, Nebraska. He graduated from high school in 1930 and went to work with his father. Although, never going off to college, Walt had an enormous wealth of information in history and current events. After his father died, he kept the shop open, living a modest life, until his health failed in the early 1990s. Walter passed on in 2008, leaving over $3.5 million, one of the largest donations of that time, to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for scholarships.