June 24, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, as part of our American Dreamers series, the late Donald Sturm, founder of ANB Bank, shares his story of growing up during the Great Depression, without even realizing it, thanks to the powerful influence of his parents.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories and one of our favorite
regular segments is our American Dreamer series, and today Alex
Cortez brings us the voice of an American classic.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
When I grew up the word depression and to my
vocabulary and through my consciousness, and little did I know,
I lived through it, but I didn't know it was
going on because I was well taken care of by
loving parents and a family environment.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
We're listening to Donald Stern, whose parents were German immigrants
that settled in Brooklyn, New York.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
My father had some securities, owned some real estate and
sheep said Bay Brooklyn or wherever it is, and lost
everything and never recovered financially and wound up getting jobs
in the restaurant business, no longer as a manager because
(01:13):
those jobs became few and far between, and wound up
being a waiter for the rest of his life. He
worked hard to bring home money so that he could
take care of his family, and he did so in
a very heroic way. I never heard him complain. He
(01:34):
didn't achieve much financially speaking, but he had a great
family and he was a great father. Grew up in
a very dense neighborhood in the sense that there was
lots of people. Nobody had much money. There were five
(01:57):
of us in building. We lived on the I think
the third or fourth floor is a walk up. There
was no elevator. We had one bedroom. I shared the
room with my two sisters. They slept on the bed together.
I slept on a cop so last one in the
(02:19):
first one out in order for the people to move about.
My parents had the bedroom. We had one bath, and
you had to get along with everybody to get your
turn in a reasonable time.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Later in life, Donald wouldn't have such considerations achieving financial
success that his dad probably could have never dreamed for him.
Donald's helped lead the billion dollar conglomerate Qwit, went on
to own many banks and made several appearances on the
Forbes four hundred list. And yet he's never forgotten what
life can be like for first generation immigrants like his dad.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
In about nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety, when I'm still
in Omaha, it became a parent that they were very
educated foreigners that came to this country, and they were
licensed educated doctors, dentists, lawyers. In a foreign country. When
(03:20):
they come here, they're nothing because they don't have the license.
They don't even have the proficiency with the language, so
they can't even sit for a test. They don't know
the English language at that point in time. So that
came to my attention in Omaha. So Sue and I
(03:41):
decided that we were going to help a goodly number
these people. They will say, like one hundred, I'm not sure,
I never really counted. So we started a English as
a second language program so that we got these people
somewhat proficient in the English language. And it worked. So
(04:06):
people a doctor, for instant who was sweeping the floor
in the jewelry store could take the qualifying exam in
Nebraska to get his doctor's license. The same thing with
lawyers and engineers and whatever they were. It was a
very successful program to help people help themselves and give
(04:29):
them the tools to do that and succeed in life.
We really felt good about it, but it was very
small compared to what we did here in Denver. So
after we moved here in nineteen ninety one, we decided
that we were going to try and do that in
(04:49):
a much more systematic way. We signed up with the
University of Denver to do that in a bigger way.
So we provided money, We provided computers, We compided whatever
we needed to provide because I had the money to
do that. People were so thankful, so gracious about expressing
(05:14):
themselves because we helped them get started in a new country,
in a new way in their old profession. It was
a lot of motivation. So he thought that it's always
with me that my father never had that opportunity. He
came over here at a very very young age, was
left with his aunt, and that's how we grew up
(05:36):
and never had the chance of going to school.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
At the time of our interview, Donald was eighty nine
years old and he's still coming to the office each
day for a full day of work.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I don't want to retire because I don't want to
feel like I have nothing left in my life. I
got a lot going in my life now. Mentally I
feel like i'm forty. I know physically that I'm no
longer forty. I know that there is a termination along
the way here. I'm not going to live forever. In
(06:10):
other words, but I want to use my brain and
take medication with whatever I need to stay alive and
stay vible to continue to see my kids grow. I
don't mean grow physically. I'm talking about intellectually business wise.
I need to spend time mentoring. It is so boring
(06:36):
to be contained in your apartment and people like me,
I'm not supposed to go to the office. You're supposed
to stay home and do what. I don't know, so
I want to continue to do what I'm doing. My
doctors tell me I'm chronologically a lot younger than my age.
My physical big is good. I was dying the fact
(06:56):
I have to take pills, so I have a lot
to look forward to. I have a little gym in
my apartment across the street there. I work out every morning.
Every morning, I'm on the floor for at least thirty
minutes exercising, stretching and whatever, at least four and maybe
(07:19):
five times a week, and the afternoons on the weekends
during the morning, I work out. I have a bike,
recumbent bike, and I have weights, and I do all
kinds of things like that. That takes probably an hour
and a half. So I try and keep myself in
reasonably good shape. At this age, I can't go as far.
(07:42):
And the other thing you need to do is reconcile
with yourself what your new limits are and adjust to them,
adjusting to things that happen or your environment is so
important and not being stuff at it because you can't.
I can't dunkle basketball anymore. I used to, so I
(08:04):
can't be. I use as a street example, by the way,
So you want to continue, I want to continue to
do what I used to do to the extent I can.
I still want to figure out how I can get
out of the house earlier in the morning. How do
I am I wasting steps? When I was five years old,
(08:28):
I was always concerned about how do I do things
better and quicker. I still have that way. The other
thing that I do is that I think. And when
I'm sleeping I still do that. I still get up
in the mill night and my mind is running. When
unless I have to have to have to have to
(08:49):
make a decision on something that's important, I won't because
I know that if I I want to say, bubble through,
because it's not bumbling. But if I think about something,
whether or something thinking about it, most of it is
I just I chested without thinking about it. I don't
(09:09):
know if you know what I mean by that. Maybe
everybody does. I'm not sure I come up with a
better answer.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And you're listening to Donald Sterm and what a unique
voice and memory, well it runs deep and he remembers, oh,
what his own father went through and his own parents
went through coming to this country. I do it wasn't
my parents, but it was my grandparents. I saw what
a language barrier did to my own grandparents, and they
insisted that not happen to their own kids. A great
(09:39):
American dreamer's voice and in the end of great American
dreamers story and always so many of our American dreamers,
grateful and always generous. Donald Sterm's story here on our
American stories
This is our American Stories and one of our favorite
regular segments is our American Dreamer series, and today Alex
Cortez brings us the voice of an American classic.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
When I grew up the word depression and to my
vocabulary and through my consciousness, and little did I know,
I lived through it, but I didn't know it was
going on because I was well taken care of by
loving parents and a family environment.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
We're listening to Donald Stern, whose parents were German immigrants
that settled in Brooklyn, New York.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
My father had some securities, owned some real estate and
sheep said Bay Brooklyn or wherever it is, and lost
everything and never recovered financially and wound up getting jobs
in the restaurant business, no longer as a manager because
(01:13):
those jobs became few and far between, and wound up
being a waiter for the rest of his life. He
worked hard to bring home money so that he could
take care of his family, and he did so in
a very heroic way. I never heard him complain. He
(01:34):
didn't achieve much financially speaking, but he had a great
family and he was a great father. Grew up in
a very dense neighborhood in the sense that there was
lots of people. Nobody had much money. There were five
(01:57):
of us in building. We lived on the I think
the third or fourth floor is a walk up. There
was no elevator. We had one bedroom. I shared the
room with my two sisters. They slept on the bed together.
I slept on a cop so last one in the
(02:19):
first one out in order for the people to move about.
My parents had the bedroom. We had one bath, and
you had to get along with everybody to get your
turn in a reasonable time.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Later in life, Donald wouldn't have such considerations achieving financial
success that his dad probably could have never dreamed for him.
Donald's helped lead the billion dollar conglomerate Qwit, went on
to own many banks and made several appearances on the
Forbes four hundred list. And yet he's never forgotten what
life can be like for first generation immigrants like his dad.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
In about nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety, when I'm still
in Omaha, it became a parent that they were very
educated foreigners that came to this country, and they were
licensed educated doctors, dentists, lawyers. In a foreign country. When
(03:20):
they come here, they're nothing because they don't have the license.
They don't even have the proficiency with the language, so
they can't even sit for a test. They don't know
the English language at that point in time. So that
came to my attention in Omaha. So Sue and I
(03:41):
decided that we were going to help a goodly number
these people. They will say, like one hundred, I'm not sure,
I never really counted. So we started a English as
a second language program so that we got these people
somewhat proficient in the English language. And it worked. So
(04:06):
people a doctor, for instant who was sweeping the floor
in the jewelry store could take the qualifying exam in
Nebraska to get his doctor's license. The same thing with
lawyers and engineers and whatever they were. It was a
very successful program to help people help themselves and give
(04:29):
them the tools to do that and succeed in life.
We really felt good about it, but it was very
small compared to what we did here in Denver. So
after we moved here in nineteen ninety one, we decided
that we were going to try and do that in
(04:49):
a much more systematic way. We signed up with the
University of Denver to do that in a bigger way.
So we provided money, We provided computers, We compided whatever
we needed to provide because I had the money to
do that. People were so thankful, so gracious about expressing
(05:14):
themselves because we helped them get started in a new country,
in a new way in their old profession. It was
a lot of motivation. So he thought that it's always
with me that my father never had that opportunity. He
came over here at a very very young age, was
left with his aunt, and that's how we grew up
(05:36):
and never had the chance of going to school.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
At the time of our interview, Donald was eighty nine
years old and he's still coming to the office each
day for a full day of work.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I don't want to retire because I don't want to
feel like I have nothing left in my life. I
got a lot going in my life now. Mentally I
feel like i'm forty. I know physically that I'm no
longer forty. I know that there is a termination along
the way here. I'm not going to live forever. In
(06:10):
other words, but I want to use my brain and
take medication with whatever I need to stay alive and
stay vible to continue to see my kids grow. I
don't mean grow physically. I'm talking about intellectually business wise.
I need to spend time mentoring. It is so boring
(06:36):
to be contained in your apartment and people like me,
I'm not supposed to go to the office. You're supposed
to stay home and do what. I don't know, so
I want to continue to do what I'm doing. My
doctors tell me I'm chronologically a lot younger than my age.
My physical big is good. I was dying the fact
(06:56):
I have to take pills, so I have a lot
to look forward to. I have a little gym in
my apartment across the street there. I work out every morning.
Every morning, I'm on the floor for at least thirty
minutes exercising, stretching and whatever, at least four and maybe
(07:19):
five times a week, and the afternoons on the weekends
during the morning, I work out. I have a bike,
recumbent bike, and I have weights, and I do all
kinds of things like that. That takes probably an hour
and a half. So I try and keep myself in
reasonably good shape. At this age, I can't go as far.
(07:42):
And the other thing you need to do is reconcile
with yourself what your new limits are and adjust to them,
adjusting to things that happen or your environment is so
important and not being stuff at it because you can't.
I can't dunkle basketball anymore. I used to, so I
(08:04):
can't be. I use as a street example, by the way,
So you want to continue, I want to continue to
do what I used to do to the extent I can.
I still want to figure out how I can get
out of the house earlier in the morning. How do
I am I wasting steps? When I was five years old,
(08:28):
I was always concerned about how do I do things
better and quicker. I still have that way. The other
thing that I do is that I think. And when
I'm sleeping I still do that. I still get up
in the mill night and my mind is running. When
unless I have to have to have to have to
(08:49):
make a decision on something that's important, I won't because
I know that if I I want to say, bubble through,
because it's not bumbling. But if I think about something,
whether or something thinking about it, most of it is
I just I chested without thinking about it. I don't
(09:09):
know if you know what I mean by that. Maybe
everybody does. I'm not sure I come up with a
better answer.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And you're listening to Donald Sterm and what a unique
voice and memory, well it runs deep and he remembers, oh,
what his own father went through and his own parents
went through coming to this country. I do it wasn't
my parents, but it was my grandparents. I saw what
a language barrier did to my own grandparents, and they
insisted that not happen to their own kids. A great
(09:39):
American dreamer's voice and in the end of great American
dreamers story and always so many of our American dreamers,
grateful and always generous. Donald Sterm's story here on our
American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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