"Well, yes. The Works Progress Administration. We have an auditorium here in York that was partially funded by the Works Progress Administration. There were several other activities like that around here in York that were funded by WPA.
"Now the WPA, they financed labor and materials only on their projects. And that's the way it was with the York Auditorium. York voted in a $90,000 bond, and then applied for WPA. Their first application was something like a $168,000. Well, WPA approved it, but Congress wouldn't fund it. So the second time around, they got $117,828. And then together with the $90,000 bond, that's what put up the auditorium."
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Walter Schmitt is a first generation American. His father was immigrated from Germany and 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. After his father died, he kept the shop open until his health failed in the early 1990s. Walter passed on in 2008 and left over $3.5 million to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for scholarships.
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