Dick Schimmel, a 1953 Marquette graduate from the College of Business Administration, talks to the Tribune about being more than halfway to his goal of giving away 2 million rosaries.

Q: Were you involved in any activities on campus?

A: Not really, because I was married and had a family, two kids, building a house and I finished up my degree in night school. I just couldn't get involved.

Q: So, why are you known as the Rosary Man?

A: My late uncle was involved with the Schoenstadtt Sisters; he brought them over from Germany years ago. He was a real good person and he always promoted the rosary, the Blessed Virgin, and then he died when he was quite young, but I always admired him. Later on, I just was drawn into it, got into buying rosaries, getting rosaries and giving them away. At first, I didn't know where I was going to buy them, how I was going to pay for them and who would want them. I figured I would just start out with one hundred. It kept on and on and on and word got out, a couple of newspapers wrote a couple of articles. It just grew and grew and got to be worldwide after eight years. Now I'm working on 2 million. I also give other medals, statues, and scapulars as well.

Q: Was your uncle the reason why you started giving away rosaries?

A: He was my role model and he died quite young, and that was a few years later. … This is something a layperson from German-Irish parents from the small town of Fort Atkinson (is doing). I was a mass server at a church there. I always went to all the devotions. Then my wife and I moved to Milwaukee with its Catholic schools and everything. For me, it was just natural to have that desire to give them away.

Q: So you've already given about 2 million rosaries?

A: No no no. I've given 1.15 million so far. I'm working on 2 million.

Q: So, what did you do before giving away rosaries?

A: I was in sales at Schlitz Brewery, but then they went out of business. I thought it would be a lifetime job. I started when I was 20 years old back in 1950. I was going to Marquette at night school when I was working at Schlitz. Then I took up house painting, interior and exterior.

Q: Where did you get your rosaries?

A: At first I was buying the cord rosaries, the inexpensive ones from China. Just thousands of them, and then I had to pay for them. Now later on, the rosary makers out of Louisville, Ky., have a magazine and anybody that wants rosaries can have it in that magazine. The people that make them volunteer to make them from all around the country. They send them to me now. These are real good, handmade rosaries. They've been sending them for the last four or five years.

Q: So then, how has giving away rosaries impacted your life?

A: I was always a very religious Catholic. It just brings your faith up to another level. It's so satisfying. And for eight years, almost three or four hours a day, corresponding and packing and writing to people. It gives you so much more energy. It takes your faith to a higher level. That's a good way of putting it. You're getting people to pray. When you get 1 million to 2 million rosaries out over a period of years, it just comes to billions and billions of prayers that are said from these rosaries. Getting people to pray, that's what makes me happy.

Q: How do you want your rosaries to impact the lives (of the people) you give them to?

A: I think that when people say the rosary, it puts them up to a different level. It makes a better Catholic or Christian out of them when they pray the rosary every day. It becomes routine with them and it makes them a better person by doing that.

Q: Do you feel this was your real vocation?

A: Like I say, you just can't explain why. I always have prayed the rosary and my parents always did. It was just a continuation of that praying. The chance for me to do this was unbelievable. It wasn't easy right away, like I said. Who wants them? What I really wanted to do at that time was to go to the Catholic Archdiocese to the Catholic grade schools. Kids didn't necessarily know what a rosary was. I went to every one of these Catholic grade schools and offered them a free, blessed crystal rosary. I hit a brick wall. I just couldn't get any schools; they just weren't interested. Later on I went into the nursing homes and the hospitals. I did give them to some schools, hospitals and prisons. I had 200 missions from all around the world. I had to really downsize. It just got too big. I couldn't keep up. I'm just a little individual here with no email or typewriters or printers. Everything is all done with hand-written correspondences. I still send some to the missions, but it's mostly local and national.

Q: What advice can you give to current Marquette students who are searching for what they want to do in life, their vocation?

A: I think, from what I learned at Marquette High and Marquette University from the Jesuits, being taught to do something for a fellow man, not just accumulate money or "I want to be a millionaire." I wanted to make 1 million rosaries, which I didn't know that I was going to do the time I started. By not just doing things for material items, but for doing things for the Lord and your religion, that's what it's all about. Doing something for somebody else. I think the Jesuits taught us that. They teach us that we have life, have fun, but do something for other people too. That is just a good philosophy of life that I learned at Marquette University. Lead a good life, a good Catholic-Christian life. Do something for somebody else and at whatever account you can whether it be through fund-raisers, etcetera. Rosaries are my mission. I didn't know my mission until eight years ago. I have so much energy and I'm going to be 77 years old. It just takes time and devotion to do good.