History
The Sachs Foundation was first envisioned in 1927 at a weekend picnic in Colorado Springs. Henry Sachs, a businessman from Boston, who had moved to the Pikes Peak region at the suggestion of his doctors, was eating with his friends, the Stroud family, at their home downtown. Sachs, who was Jewish, had seen firsthand the significant discrimination that existed around Colorado in the early 20th century and how it affected the Stroud family specifically.
Effie Stroud, the fourth of eleven Stroud children, had recently graduated as the top student at Colorado Springs High School. However, she did not find many educational opportunities, despite her incredible intellect, because she was Black. Sachs offered to pay for Effie to attend Colorado College with the only condition that she study hard and keep her grades up. Later, at the aforementioned picnic, Effie’s father KD Stroud first mentioned the idea of an educational foundation to Sachs.
Henry Sachs first found business success as a stockbroker in Boston when his friend and business partner, King Gillette was seeking investors to help build his scalpel and razorblade business into a larger enterprise. Sachs subsequently became one of the first investors in the Gillette Safety Razor Company. Upon moving to Colorado Springs for his health, Sachs focused his business on real estate development, establishing the Three Eagles company with new business partner Morris Esmiol. However, without children of his own, he began using his wealth to support the Black Coloradans he had become so close to over the years.
While supporting Effie’s studies at Colorado College, KD Stroud suggested that Sachs establish a foundation that would inherit his estate and continue his mission of helping Black families facing economic and educational discrimination around the state of Colorado. In 1931, Sachs did exactly that and granted Effie’s older brother, Dolphus Stroud, the first scholarship awarded by the newly established Sachs Foundation.
Upon Henry Sachs’ death in 1952, The Sachs Foundation became the beneficiary of the Sachs estate with Morris Esmiol carrying on the mission envisioned at the picnic nearly 25 years earlier. Since its inception, the Sachs Foundation has supported thousands of Black Coloradans in their health, wellbeing and educational pursuits from Junior High to Doctorate levels.