Leonard Krueger

 

Recorded as told to him in 1985 and 1987 by Mr. Leonard Krueger in Winnipeg on March 4, 1987

by Hans K. Jacobs, M.D.

 

The Leonard Krueger Scholarship is named after Mr. Leonard Krueger who donated the scholarship. Mr. Leonard Krueger was born in 1898 in a small village on the western border of the Russian Empire. He was born into a family of German speaking Lutherans who had come from East Prussia to farm in Russia. During the first decade of this century the family left and immigrated to Canada. The Krueger family settled in the Winkler-Morden district of southern Manitoba. There Leonard Krueger received his early schooling. As a particularly bright student he attracted the attention of the superintendent of the Mennonite schools in southern Manitoba. This man saw to it that Leonard Krueger could receive the best possible education in spite of all difficulties encountered by his new immigrant family. After graduation from high school Leonard Krueger attended the University of Manitoba, studying with a major in physics and graduating with a B.A. in 1928. At the University of Manitoba Dr. Parker, then the professor of chemistry, must have taken a special interest in Leonard Krueger. He persuaded Leonard Krueger to pursue (sic) graduate studies and upon his recommendation Leonard Krueger was admitted to the prestigious Graduate School of the University of Chicago. There Leonard Krueger obtained his M.A. degree. During the war years Leonard Krueger worked as a German language specialist for the security branch of the RCMP. It seems that after the war he worked as a teacher.

After retiring and receiving his pension Mr. Krueger began a most unusual programme of establishing scholarships. He felt that he had to repay a debt for the kindness and support he had received as a young student. He set aside the monies he received as pension. He donated these funds to universities, colleges, hospitals and churches in Canada to allow them to give scholarships to young people of bright mind, but without means to pursue (sic) their studies. Having decided to give away his pension, Mr. Krueger found a way to survive with very little. He started to collect old bottles, scrap metal and other items that could be recycled and sold them. These ‘alternative’ earnings allowed him to lead a very modest and frugal life, but they enabled him also to fulfill his goal – to give away his pension for scholarships. People who met the old man pushing his vehicle, a shopping cart, laden with ‘valuable’ toward the scrap yard called him a vagabond or bag man. Over the years Leonard Krueger had become like one of the eremite saints or street philosophers of antiquity. When you stopped to speak to him you could quickly notice an extremely sharp mind. And when you enquired (sic) about his motives you would discover a truly pious soul.

Leonard Krueger Bursary