Pody Impacts St. John Paul II School with Largest Estate Gift in School History

 
Courtney J. Deinert
Communications Director, Mitchell Catholic Parishes
cdeinert@mitchellcatholic.org
605-996-3639 ext 7
 
Pody Impacts St. John Paul II School with Largest Estate Gift in School History
 
Mitchell, SD–St. John Paul II School recently announced a transformational $1.15 million endowed gift, which will perpetually benefit teachers and school families.
 
The Bruce Pody Charitable Trust gifted $1.15 million to the Catholic Community Foundation for Eastern South Dakota, creating the Bruce Pody Educational Fund Endowment, specifically meant to support teacher salaries at St. John Paul II School. This will equate to an annual endowment distribution of $46,000 to St. John Paul II School. This gift also marks the largest estate gift in the history of the Mitchell Catholic Foundation and school.
 
The Bruce Pody Charitable Trust was created following the death of Bruce Pody in May 2025. Pody, a resident of Artesian, SD, farmed in the area for over 70 years.
 
Close family friends, Kenny and Katrina Hostler, shared that while Pody wasn’t a man of religion, he was a man of virtue.
 
Pody was a first-generation farmer, having bought his first acre for $40 with money he sent home to his mother while deployed in the Korean War. Pody served as a mechanic for two years in the United States Army, strategically saving money by selling his ration of cigarettes.
 
In addition to his love for farming and great work ethic, Pody had a great appreciation for education. Pody graduated from Fedora High School and was the only child in his family to complete high school. Pody’s first wife, Louise, was a devoted Catholic of Holy Family Church and also a school teacher, and he always felt she was undercompensated for the work she did. Pody married again in 1995 to Opal Stockwell.
 
Hostlers believe that Pody’s intention with his gift was to take care of teachers.
 
“He wanted good education for the kids, and he knew that to do that, you needed to take care of the people,” said Kenny.
 
Katrina added, “When I’d go out to the field or drop something off, and we’d have a short conversation, he’d thank me for being a teacher. ‘You’re doing important work here, and thank you for being a teacher.’”
 
Through Pody’s working relationship and friendship with the Hostler family, Pody came to know St. John Paul II School. He would tag along to school events, including Vacation Bible School Program, the Fall Festival, and preschool graduation. Both families, Travis and Sarah, and Kenny and Katrina, send their children to St. John Paul II School, and Katrina teaches sixth grade at the school. As the Hostlers became family to Pody, the school became important to Pody as well.
 
The endowment will continue to grow as the charitable trust is scheduled to make subsequent gifts to the endowment through 2044. As the endowment grows, the annual distributions will continue to increase as well.
 
In addition to supporting teacher salaries, Principal Sarah Timmer shares that this and other generous gifts will also allow the school to freeze tuition. There will be no increase to tuition prices for the 2026-2027 school year.
 
St. John Paul II School is the parochial school of Mitchell Catholic Parishes and offers preschool-6th grade classes. The school is currently in a three-year transition to a classical model, and enrollment is open for the 2026-2027 school year. For more information on St. John Paul II School, visit johnpaul2.org.
 
The Catholic Community Foundation for Eastern South Dakota is an independent Catholic community foundation that raises, manages, and distributes God’s gifts to donor-directed ministries. To learn more about the Catholic Community Foundation and its services, visit ccfesd.org
 
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