Our History

In the early 1920s, the Rev. August “Dad” Hoeger worked as a parish pastor in North Dakota. When a fellow minister’s plea for donations to help a young boy with polio exceeded its goal by $2,000, the Rev. Hoeger suggested the extra money be used to help other individuals with disabilities. To that end, The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society was incorporated under the laws of the state of North Dakota on September 29, 1922, as a religious, charitable, not-for-profit corporation.