Founder's Page

"The most valuable asset this country has is not gold or oil, but the minds of young people." —Dr. Irving A. Fradkin

In 1958, Dr. Irving A. Fradkin, an Optometrist in Fall River, Mass., founded the initial Dollars for Scholars chapter by challenging everyone in his community to give at least one dollar toward sending its youth to college.

Dr. Fradkin ran for the Fall River School Board in 1957 on a platform calling for community-supported scholarships for local students. Despite his electoral defeat, Dr. Fradkin pursued his idea—which blossomed into Dollars for Scholars, Scholarship America’s flagship program—a nationwide organization that today represents more than 1,200 chapters and 3,600 communities from southern California to the northern tip of Maine.

He has continued, for the last fifty years, to work tirelessly for both Scholarship America and for students in Fall River, where he still resides with his wife Charlotte, and nationwide. He has been instrumental in establishing the American Dream Challenge in Fall River, a program that begins encouraging, and providing funding to, prospective college students at an elementary school level.

Among Dr. Fradkin’s numerous honors include the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ Distinguished Service Award, a nomination for the Presidential Service Award, the Isaiah Avila Award for “Uncommon Common Man,” the Schow-Donnelly Service Before Self Award and a recognition from the Presidential Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives. Recently, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, New England College of Optometry.