In May 1973, an explosion in the melt shop of Nucor Steel South Carolina claimed the lives of four teammates – Don Griffin (age 41), Frank Jackson (age 26), John Shaw (age 25) and Preston Zimmerman (age 49). In the wake of this tragedy, in 1974, the Nucor Foundation scholarship program was established. Nucor wanted to help the families of the men who had been killed, especially their 12 children. Dave Aycock, who was a vice president at the time, recommended to Ken Iverson that the scholarships should be available to the children of all employees based on Nucor’s egalitarian practices.

For over 50 years, Nucor has offered scholarships to Nucor teammates and their dependents through the Nucor Foundation. Each child qualifies for up to $20,000 over four years that can be used for education expenses after high school. Today, the Nucor Foundation regularly funds over $6.5 million per year in scholarships and, since its inception, has distributed over $140 million to more than 29,800 students.

Ken was especially proud of this scholarship program and believed it to be “worth every penny.” In a letter to Paul Harvey (famed radio broadcaster known for The Rest of the Story) in 1991, Ken wrote, “[The scholarship program] is not completely altruistic. The program does bring the company into the employees’ family and around the kitchen table.”

Ken believed that even if employee’s children pursued careers outside Nucor—such as teaching, health care or business—they still contributed meaningfully to Nucor’s impact on society. He tried over the years to get other companies, including those companies of which he was a board member, to adopt similar programs.