A final lesson in giving.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

BLUE RIVER - Frieda "Pat" Steele stood less than 5 feet tall, kept her hair blonde until the day she died, had no children of her own and always dressed well.

This is the woman who spent four decades teaching first-graders at McKenzie Elementary School, but whose legacy will live on for years to come.

Steele, who died in August 2002 at agef 89, left the bulk of her estate to the McKenzie School District. During the last decade of her life, she gave between $10,000 and $20,000 to a scholarship fund that benefited the college dreams of graduating seniors at McKenzie High School, said Cindy Smith, the school district's business manager.

Now that Steele's estate has been settled, the news came earlier this week that $750,000 will go into a permanent memorial trust, and the annual interest will continue to provide college funding for qualifying seniors every spring.

"I don't know how she accumulated her wealth, but she obviously loved McKenzie," Smith said.

A graduate of the University of Oregon, Steele was hired by the district in 1936 and retired in 1976.

"She was a very sweet lady who loved kids, and they all loved her," said Marge Estenson of Vida, who worked with Steele from 1943 to 1976 and remained her friend until the day she died. "I'm big and she was little, so we were Mutt and Jeff."

Estenson remembers many shoe-shopping trips with Steele, who always asked for size 3 1/2 shoes, but usually settled for size 4 because that's the smallest size most stores had.

Steele lived on McKenzie Highway for years with her husband, Robert, and the two were married for more than 50 years before divorcing. She moved into an apartment at a retirement center in Eugene after the divorce and spent her last years in a Springfield care facility suffering from Alzheimer's, Estenson said.

"She had no heirs, and there wasn't anyone to give her money to, particularly, so I think she kind of thought that was a good thing to do," Estenson said of Steele's donation.

There are other college scholarship funds at the high school, "but this is the largest and most significant one," Smith said.

"We are very blessed up here for scholarship money," she said.

Anywhere from about three to six graduating seniors typically qualify for scholarship fund money every spring, Smith said, and most of those are honors students. Students must have a 3.5 grade point average and be taking college-level or college-prep classes to qualify. The fund established with Steele's donation will earn interest that will likely provide $2,000 to $5,000 per student in scholarship money per year, Smith said.

CAPTION(S):

First-grader Kassidy Constantine, 6, raises her hand to answer a question during a special science class at McKenzie Elementary School in Blue River. The students could benefit someday from Frieda Steele's bequest. Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard McKenzie Elementary School first-graders listen as their teacher, Eileen Adams, reads them "Charlotte's Web," the classic work of children's fiction by E.B. White.