For 30 years, Kifleab Tekle protected the students at the Hockaday School as their security guard.

Now that he's about to retire, alumnae at the elite Dallas, Texas all-girl's school are paying Tekle back for his three decades of service - with a six-figure check.

The fund initially started as a campaign by members of the class of 2005, to raise $2,005 as a retirement gift for the long-time security guard the students call 'Kief'.

But the Go Fund Me campaign quickly surpassed it's goal as graduates of all ages started chipping in.

Kifleab Tekle, the longtime security guard at the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas is retiring and his former students at the school have raised more than $178,000 as a parting gift for him

As of Monday afternoon, the fund had raised over $178,000, with more than 1,700 individual donations.

'I was not expecting such a big farewell,' Kief said in a statement. 'It means stability for my family.'

Alumnae will present Tekle with the gift at a private retirement ceremony on Monday.

'For 30 years, Kief was the emperor of the parking lot and carpool, and for all those years, Kief has been the heart and soul of Hockaday,' Eugene McDermott Headmistress Liza Lee said in a prepared statement. 'He has given us lessons in grace, lessons in courtesy and lessons in love.'

Abby Hoak Morton, a 2005 graduate and now a teacher herself, launched the page with friends and told the Dallas Morning News that she was pleasantly surprised by the success of the fund.

'I had no idea it would get to this point,' Hoak-Morton said.

Since it's foundation in 1913, the daughters of Texas' - and the nation's - most powerful people have graced it's halls, including former President George W Bush's daughters Barbara and Jenna

Former students at the school say Kief was like the Hagrid to their Hogwarts, who never forgot a student's name and once broke his arm chasing someone from campus.

'When someone as pivotal in the community as Kief announces his retirement, it’s breathtaking, but not entirely surprising the entire community has rallied like this,' Amy Patrick, a structural engineer who graduated from the school in 2000, said. 'He kept us safe. And he fought for safety.'

According to the Dallas Morning News, Kief was born in Ethiopia to a rich family that lived in an eight-bedroom villa. But the family lost millions of dollars, their livestock, seven estates and their hotel with the fall of the monarchy in the early 1970s.

After being arrested for working for a Russian textile company, Kief was ordered to leave the country, so he made his way to Eritrea and then Sudan where he got a job as an immigration interpreter.

Eventually, he secured a sponsorship from a Christian charity to move to the United States, and he settled in Dallas in 1986. A few years later, he got his first job at Hockaday.

Since it's foounding in 1913, the daughters of Texas' - and the nation's - most powerful people have graced it's halls, including former President George W Bush's daughters Barbara and Jenna.

Tuition ranges from $24,040 for elementary school to $53,285 for high school students who board at the school.