Jerome “Jerry” Schaff

THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND

Jerome “Jerry” Schaff was born May 13th, 1939 to Michael and Katherine “Katie” Schaff in Carson, North Dakota, but he spent the majority of his childhood in Mandan.

Michael was an aspiring entrepreneur who had a bright future, but shortly after going deeply in debt in order to buy several businesses, he was killed in a car crash. Jerry was only four years old. The Schaff family was left with nothing but their German stubbornness and their American ingenuity.

The family moved to Mandan where they permanently settled. Katie took a job as a meat packer at Cloverdale’s and worked all day while her children went to school.

Jerry graduated from Mandan High School in 1957, and he took classes at Bismarck State College before eventually graduating in 1963 from the University of North Dakota with an accounting degree. Throughout the entirety of his time in college, he worked forty hours a week in order to pay for his tuition, housing, and living expenses.

Jerry took a position with the State Tax Department as the chief auditor for the sales tax division, a position which he held until 1967 when Raymond “Ray” Martin approached him about joining the newly formed Braun, Martin, Inc. Immediately interested in the idea, he told Ray that he was inclined to accept but that he would first need to ask his fiancé, Anita “Betty” Schaff.

He said to her that the decision belonged as much to her as it did to him. It was very risky, as the firm was only a few years old, would require a large financial investment from him, and was not guaranteed to succeed. Perhaps even more significantly, it would require countless hours and endless late nights at the office.

Betty fully approved of the idea, and with her support, there was nothing that could hold Jerry back. In order to buy into the business,. Jerry sold his brand new Chevy. He also needed to take out a loan, but he so hated being in debt that every penny he made for the first two years he put right back towards his outstanding loans. Betty made $3,000 a year as a teacher, and the two of them lived off of that and nothing more until Jerry finally started turning a profit.

In 1970, Betty gave birth to Michael, their first child. Soon after came Mitchell, and then their youngest, John Thomas. Because of how much time Jerry put into the firm–he would sometimes work for eighteen hours a day–Betty was terrified that her boys would grow up never knowing their father. It did not take long for her to learn that her fears were needless. Although Jerry continued to work hard and long, he always made time in his schedule to support his three boys and let them know how much he loved them. Sometimes he would come late or leave early, and sometimes he was only able to stay for a few minutes, but he never once missed one of his sons’ many sporting events.

The years passed, and Jerry’s sons graduated from highschool and then college. Mike and John both went on to law school and graduated with their JD’s, and Mitch became a registered nurse. All three moved out of North Dakota, and while they kept in touch with their parents, they were missed immensely 

Jerry became a grandfather in 1997 when Mike’s first daughter was born, and then again in 1999 when Mike’s wife gave birth to a pair of twins. As Mike’s family continued to grow, it became harder and harder for him to work at a large law firm where it seemed he was always expected to make work a priority over family. Recognizing this conflict that his son was facing, Jerry reached out to Mike and suggested that he move back to North Dakota and join Braun & Schaff.

Mike accepted the offer, moved back to Bismarck with his family, and became a partner at the firm. Braun stepped back from the firm, and the name was changed to Schaff Tax and Financial Services.

Although Mike gradually took on more and more of a leadership position at the firm, Jerry never fully retired. He told Betty once that he did not want to play golf seven days a week when he could still help to run the business that he so loved.

That being said, Jerry did start putting more and more time into being a grandfather than into being an
accountant. Between his three sons, Jerry was eventually the proud grandpa of eleven grandkids, and he was never happier than when the whole family came over for Thanksgiving or Christmas and he got to watch the Vikings (usually as they were losing) with his boys or to play a card game with his beloved grandchildren.

It was a devastating blow when in June of 2021, Jerry was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
Life seemed to stop for the whole Schaff family. Jerry easily could have given up at this point, but he had never been one to give up without a fight. Although the cancer and the many treatments he had to undergo to fight it robbed him of much of his physical strength, he turned to God, finding a spiritual strength far more powerful than anything that he had lost.