Ida Yoder Scholarship

Ida Yoder was born in Johnson County, Iowa (the Kalona area). in 1905, the Youngest of five children. She wanted to go to high school, but since education beyond the eighth grade was frowned upon in her family, she did not get to high school until she was past age eighteen. Starting in January at the Hesston Academy, she did the equivalent of the freshman year in one semester. In two more years she graduated from high school.

She then attended a state normal school in the summer so she could teach in a one—room school in the fall. She taught two years in each of two Iowa one-room schools, finally gathering enough resources to enter college. She attended college (Hesston and Goshen) for five semesters. By that time the resources gathered were completely exhausted, and some bills could not be paid. She was still a year short of a college degree, so she moved to Iowa City and registered for courses part time at the University so she could work part time to pay bills. She finished the senior year in two years (four semesters). Tuition was reasonably low since she was a native of Iowa. She found work in restaurants to pay for meals and helped in homes for room rent. Additional jobs by the hour gave her enough cash to pay for tuition. These jobs included house cleaning and child care. She was fortunate to get one job from a woman professor who was working on her advanced degree at the University. She needed to have high school geometry capers scored, dozens of them and the results tabulated.

Ida had her bachelors degree now (from the University of Iowa), and a teachers license, but teaching had gone ‘down hill in Iowa since she had taught before. So she moved to Ohio. where she found office work and some factory work until she had saved some money, She worked for the Social Security Administration in its early years and worked for the post office for a time, during the ‘manpower” shortage of World War II. In the 1940s she established a business, doing taxes and keeping books for small businesses. She also invested in a business property.

In the late 1950s and early 19606, Ida and long—time friend Lucille Kreider designed and supervised construction of a home in Wadsworth, Ohio, doing a significant amount of the work themselves. Another achievement for Ida was the editing and publishing of the journals of her brother Edward Yoder, who taught at Goshen College from 1933-1938. The book Edward was published in 1985.

With frugal living and careful investment. Ida and Lucille were able to travel throughout the United States and Europe on several occasions. In 19 they traveled in Europe for four months, their first overseas trip. in 1976 they served an eleven—day ‘mini—SST” in Beleze. Of all the travels. Ida especially enjoyed Switzerland.

Receiving an education was an important but difficult task for Ida. Because she realized that it continues to be a challenge for many people today, in 1996 she established the Ida Yoder Scholarship Fund at Goshen College.