A bar owner who never attended college has left $200,000 to the alma mater of her best customers. Ida F. Meyer of Lake Placid, Fla., died March 22 at 103 years of age. “I might as well give it back to the College,” she told her attorney Michael A. Rider, during her estate planning. “Those kids were good to us.”
A Northland News article, “Former bar owner bequests $200,000 to Northland College,”reported how students from that era remember a fastidious, kind couple who didn’t tolerate loud or obnoxious behavior. They ate foot-long hotdogs and brick cheese sandwiches on rye bread, and drank dime taps. They played hits on the jukebox.
Cabbie’s is credited with many chance meetings, first dates and long-lasting marriages. “I met my sweet wife of 48 years in the fall of 1964 on a Friday night at Cabbie’s,” said Northland College alumnus Tom Bogess in the article.
“I bought her a beer, we danced and the rest is history.”
Ida was born in North Dakota and she married Casper Meyer in 1935. They owned several Wisconsin businesses, including Cabbie’s Tap. Casper died in 1991 and Ida moved to Florida. Neither she nor her husband attended college, and they never had children of their own. Northland College says that it has started the Ida and Cabbie's Scholarship in honor of Ida's generous gift.
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Reference: Northland News (May 28, 2015) “Former bar owner bequests $200,000 to Northland College”