Endowed Scholarships


Associated Students of Walla Walla University Scholarship

The Associated Students of Walla Walla University (ASWWU) has long been involved in helping with the financial needs of the school.

In 1914 the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists proposed to reduce WWC to the status of a secondary school because the college was becoming too expensive to operate. But the students refused to give up on their school and responded to the challenge by organizing an informal discussion group and debating society called the Collegiate Association. The main focus of the group was to seek new ways of building and strengthening the school.

One of their first projects was raising money for a building to house a gymnasium and swimming pool. It was completed in 1917. In 1920 the same group, reorganized as the Student Association, picked apples to pay for the renovation of the Administration Building and for new chapel seats. In 1921 the Association decided to raise money for a science building. They staged a parade through Walla Walla and solicited enough funds for Bowers Hall to be completed in 1924. In 1960 the group raised $10,000 for an organ in the new College Church.

Today the organization still seeks to help its school. Every spring ASWWU awards several scholarships.

“The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.” –James Baldwin


James and Ruth Bebee Nursing Scholarship

Ruth Scyphers was born and raised in Montana. A very resourceful and hard working young woman, Ruth worked her way through Walla Walla University. As a 1965 Nursing graduate, she was employed as a registered nurse in the first Intensive Care Unit at Portland Adventist Hospital.

It was while working at Portland Adventist that Ruth met Jim Bebee, a Portland native. Though it was not “love at first sight,” Ruth and Jim developed a loving lifetime friendship which led to their marriage in 1968.

Jim completed his studies in business management and computer science and graduated in 1970 from Portland State University. In 1971, Ruth received her Master in Nursing degree from the University of Washington. The family, which now included two daughters, moved to Southeastern Washington in 1977.

During the last 38 years, Ruth has managed coronary care/intensive care units in addition to several other management responsibilities in the ever-changing field of health care. She has been a part-time nursing professor for five different colleges, as well as an instructor in the start-up paramedic program in Tri-Cities, Wash. She has strongly encouraged her nursing staff to pursue clinical excellence, additional education, and specialty certification.

During his business career, Jim has been involved in finance, business management, information systems, and cost analysis. Although actively involved with the family and church ministry, Jim enjoys reading and has “survived” four marathons.

Both Ruth and Jim believe in the Christian educational opportunities available at Walla Walla University and have encouraged their daughters in their educational pursuits. Jim and Ruth are grateful for the education their daughters obtained at Walla Walla University. They designed this scholarship to assist nursing students in pursuit of a baccalaureate degree in nursing.

“Teach me our ways, O Lord. Show me which way to go. Show me the truth and help me to live it. You are my God and Savior. My hope is in no one but you.” –Psalms 25:4,5 The Clear Word


Dr. Frederick and Haneann Bennett Engineering Scholarship

Frederick Roland Bennett was born on February 11, 1930, in Boston, Massachusetts. The only child of Frederick Ney Bennett and Viola Ethel Bennett, he grew up during the Depression, where money and food were scarce. Through a Seventh-day Adventist food bank, he learned about the church and was baptized at age 11.

Fred attended Adventist schools through college. He worked construction and engineering jobs for two years to pay the bills before hitchhiking cross-country with a friend to College Place, Washington, arriving with only 62 cents in his pocket.

Walla Walla College staff supported Fred as he studied mechanical engineering, and as a student he worked on many projects that still benefit the university. Fred met JaneAnn Schlader (att.) at the beginning of his senior year and declared he would marry her. On June 12, two weeks after he graduated in 1955, Fred and JaneAnn were married. They would go on to have four children, all of whom also attended WWC.

Fred joined the civilian engineering design office for the Bremerton U.S. Naval Shipyard in 1956. He became the lead structural design engineer for the complete redesign of steam catapults for aircraft carriers and worked on assignment to the Bureau of Ships in Washington D.C. He received his Professional Engineer’s License for Civil Engineering in Washington in 1961.

That same year, Fred and JaneAnn accepted a call from Professor Edward Cross to teach at the WWC School of Engineering. Fred earned a master’s degree in civil engineering in 1966 and a PhD in 1977, both from Washington State University.

While at WWC, Fred established Adventist Engineers and Architects. This group assisted with engineering assignments all over the world, including clinics, schools, and churches. Fred also established the Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and served as its sponsor for over 25 years, receiving an award for service in 1986. Fred and fellow professor Glenn Masden helped set up the first mainframe computer for the college, helping WWC lead western colleges in mainframe computer technology. In 1990, Fred received an Honored Faculty award from Walla Walla College and in 2005 received Alumnus of the Year.

In 1999, Fred retired from Walla Walla University but continued to assist the university and church in many ways. He devoted his life to helping others, and his family and friends remember him for his steady ways, hard work, and consistent faith in God. He loved music and participated in singing groups. He had a passion for sailing, and his family has many fond memories of sailboat trips in the Puget Sound and San Juan islands. Fred passed away on October 25, 2015.

Intelligent planning and hard work were hallmarks of Dr. Fred Bennett’s life, and Walla Walla University is honored to preserve that legacy through the Dr. Frederick and JaneAnn Bennett Endowed Engineering Scholarship.


Shannon Marie Bigger Christian Service Volunteer Scholarship

Shannon Marie Bigger was born in 1971 in Burns, Ore. The Bigger family, focused on ministry and service, moved frequently and Shannon’s circle of experience widened rapidly. The Biggers moved to College Place when she was nine years old. Shannon attended Rogers Elementary School and graduated from Walla Walla Valley Academy in 1990.

Shannon was active in ministry as a young adult. While attending Walla Walla University she served in the campus ministries program, was a deaconess and elder at the College Church and volunteered for “Kids Konnection,” a monthly children’s service at the College Church. She was also a Christian Service Volunteer on the island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia during the 1992-93 academic year, where she taught first grade at the Yap SDA school.

Shannon also served as an officer for Aleph Gimel Ain, the women’s residence hall club, and worked as a resident assistant. She gained professional experience working in the WWU Admissions and Marketing office, in the College Church office, and as an announcer for KGTS-FM and Blue Mt. Television.

Shannon graduated from WWU in 1995 with a major in mass communication. Soon after, she moved to Takoma Park, Md., to work as a development intern in the Foundation office of Washington Adventist Hospital. In 1996, two weeks before she was scheduled to return to the Northwest to become development director at Gem State Academy in Idaho, she was murdered in her Takoma Park apartment. She is survived by her parents Darold ’66 and ’94, professor of religion and social work, and Barbara att., director of the Walla Walla University Store, sister Hilary Catlett ’97 and ’98, and Rosemary Laarad from Yap, who joined the family in 1994.

This scholarship is awarded to students volunteering on the island of Yap.

“Live for something. Do good and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storms of time can never destroy.” –Thomas Chalmers


Alice I. Bowden Memorial Theology Scholarship

Alice I. Bowden was born in Leadville, Colo., in 1905. She was educated in Victor, Colo., through high school and attended Barnes Business College in Denver. She worked several years and, intending to become a teacher, attended Colorado State Teachers College in Greeley for two years.

Before she could complete her education it became necessary for her to move to Phoenix, Ariz., in 1930 to care for her ailing mother. She also had to work and, in spite of the Depression, found a job as a bookkeeper, office manager, and secretary at Five Points Ice Company where she worked for the next 50 years providing the business with a familiar face through many changes, including several owners. In 1983 at age 78 she was forced to quit her job because of health reasons.

She was an active member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Century Club of Phoenix, and the Order of the Eastern Star. Also active in her church, she helped with Sunday school classes, youth meetings, and senior league.

“She spent her entire life caring for and giving of herself to those around her,” says her sister Mary Marker.

A third sister, Louise Bowden Allen, provides Alice’s connection to WWU. Louise is the mother of Ione Brunt ’74, who is married to former WWU academic dean, John Brunt.

Ione was close to both her aunts. Marker was inspired to help students at WWU because of the Brunts. She established this theology scholarship in memory of her sister.

“She was as good as goodness is. Her acts and words were always kind.  And high above all memories, I hold the beauty of her mind.” –Unknown


George Bowers Excellence in Chemistry Scholarship

Bowers completed a bachelor’s degree at Union College in 1917. After teaching several years at two academies and at Union College, he resumed his studies and received a master’s degree in zoology from the University of Nebraska. In 1935 he received a doctoral degree in organic chemistry from the same university.

In 1924 a young science teacher named George Winfield Bowers came to teach chemistry and biology at Walla Walla University. The school had 305 students and 14 teachers. Student wages were 20 cents per hour and tuition was $90 per year.

Thirteen years later, Bowers began a 17-year term as president of WWU, overseeing the enormous growth at WWU during the post-World War II years. During this period the college doubled in size. The number of graduates increased four times, 36 buildings were constructed and/or moved on campus, the teaching staff doubled, and six new departments were created.

A calming figure during difficult and challenging times, Bowers and his wife, Clara Keith-Bowers, instituted regular faculty potluck suppers and faculty vespers services to improve campus morale and cohesion. Bowers felt that his greatest contribution to the college was upgrading the academic caliber of the school.

Bowers left the presidency in 1955 and resumed chairmanship of the chemistry department where he taught until his full retirement in 1965. By then he had served the college 40 years.

Bowers died in 1986. This scholarship is awarded to chemistry students. “He has won the admiration and the respect of all by his kindly and sympathetic Guidance.” –1939 Mountain Ash


Boyson Family Communication Scholarship

In recognition of the education their own children received at Adventist colleges and because they simply want to help those who need it, Juanita and Elmer Boyson have established the Boyson Family Communication Scholarship.

At the suggestion of their daughter, a former communication student at Walla Walla University, the Boyson Family Communication Scholarship will be awarded to communication majors. Susan Boyson Guissano graduated from WWU in 1974 with a major in speech pathology and audiology. The Boyson’s son, Walter, is a 1981 business administration graduate from WWU.

Mrs. Boyson grew up in Madison, Tenn. Mr. Boyson is a native of Scranton, Pa. World War II brought the couple together in Modesto, Calif., where they met at Hammond Hospital, an army facility. Mrs. Boyson worked as a nurse and Mr. Boyson was a military officer working as a purchasing agent for the mess hall. Mr. Boyson had just returned from Pearl Harbor where he was one of the first enlisted officers to return after the bombing there. The couple married in 1943. The Boysons lived in Modesto most of their lives, where they raised their four children and owned and operated several nursing homes. The Boysons retired in 1986. Mr. Boyson passed away in 2000. Mrs. Boyson is currently still residing in Modesto, Calif.

“We want to help those who need it.”–Juanita Boyson


John F. Bregar Memorial Scholarship

John F. Bregar “Jack” was born in 1923 in a Pennsylvania mining town. He never dreamed of going to college. In his community the young men went to work in the mines. However, his older brother Joe broke the tradition, went to college, and encouraged Jack to do the same.

When World War II erupted, Jack was drafted into the army. He was selected for specialized training and sent to Syracuse University. When the war ended he returned to Syracuse and married Marjorie Lanning, his “Bright Eyes.” In 1948 he obtained a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and later a doctoral degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Arizona.

During Jack’s life, he was both an electrical and nuclear engineer, a chief test engineer on Polaris submarines and a professor of engineering at Walla Walla University and Arizona State University. Jack also ran some businesses of his own and was the manager of a real estate office. He worked on the A1W prototype reactor for the aircraft carrier Enterprise, and the world’s first full-scale central atomic power plant for civilians at Shippingport, Pa.

In 1983 he began teaching at WWU and eventually became the dean of the School of Engineering. These positions, he said, were the most satisfying of his career. “He was one individual who was always willing to help,” says one colleague. Others remember him for his long-distance telephone calls to help students and alumni find jobs.

This scholarship was established by Jack’s family after his death in 1990.

“Jack will be remembered for his inferring optimism and enthusiasm. Those traits touched people who knew him and enabled many of them, including myself, to overcome obstacles in their lives.” –Glenn Masden


Lewis Canaday Memorial Technology Scholarship

Lewis Canaday left his home in Chehalis, Wash., to get a Christian education. In 1934, practically penniless, he enrolled at Walla Walla University. After just two quarters, his economic resources were depleted and Canaday left to work as a literature evangelist, toting his briefcase of books from door to door.

During those economically lean years, Canaday was married. He and his wife, Elizabeth, couldn’t quell the nagging thought they should return to school. Thirteen years later he did. After eight years of juggling books, a job, and marriage, he graduated in 1953. After graduation he walked into WWU’s academic affairs office and was hired on the spot.

Canaday was born in 1913 in Ewing, Neb. During his 77-year life he was a printer, photographer, ceramist, furniture and cabinet designer and maker, sculptor, wood-carver, shipbuilder, author, and editor; but above all, a teacher.

Canaday retired in 1979 after teaching industrial technology for 28 years—first in woods and later in the graphics program he initiated. Canaday was instrumental in raising funds for, designing, and building the WWU industrial technology building.

In 1979 he began work on a 10-by-16 foot concrete relief mural depicting “Christ, the Master Craftsman.” At the time of its dedication in 1984, the industrial technology building was named in his honor. Canaday was also named professor emeritus. He died in 1990.

This scholarship is awarded to technology students.

“The sweetest lives are those to duty wed, whose deeds both great and small are close-knit strands of an unbroken thread, where love enables all.” –Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Dr. Muriel Chapman Endowed Nursing Scholarship

Muriel Elizabeth Chapman was born November 24, 1915, moving from Seattle, Wash to San Diego, Calf when she was five years old.  Muriel began a lifelong dedication to healthcare when she graduated as a nurse from San Diego County General Hospital in 1937. Her work included managing and working in a doctor’s office where she assisted with home deliveries and later she made home visits to patients in the Appalachian mountains.  At times that meant parking her car and walking up the “hallow” to see her patients.

In 1947 Muriel graduated from Walla Walla University with a double major in Nursing and Biology.  Later, she completed a Master’s in Nursing at Emory University and earned her Doctorate in Education from Columbia University in 1969.  In 1976, Muriel became the assistant chairman of the Nursing department of Andrews University.  While on leave a few years later, she worked with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland, to organize the Nursing Archives.  During that time, she gathered materials that led to the writing and publication of her book “Mission of Love: A Century of Seventh-day Adventist Nursing” in 2000.

Muriel retired in 1985, after a full career and then began her life as a missionary. For three years she lived in a leaf and bamboo house on the Thai-Burma border and she taught a program for the village health workers. She later moved to Berrien Springs, Mich to enjoy her retirement.

When asked what she remembers about her time at Walla Walla University, she responded that Walla Walla University was “my sanctuary of refuge during a troublous time.” The Dr. Muriel Chapman Endowed Nursing Fund provides scholarships for nursing students based on financial need and academic merit.  Students must be at or above the sophomore level.


Percy W. Christian Excellence in History Award

Percy W. Christian, fourteenth WWU president, was a former teacher in the WWU history department. After chairing the history department from 1933 to 1943, Christian returned to campus in 1955 to begin his nine-year term as president. An advocate of long-range planning, Christian led the college into a period of great expansion.

Nineteen of his 21 years as an administrator were spent as a college president not only at WWU, but also at Pacific Union College and Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University).

In 1926 Christian received a bachelor of arts degree from Broadview College in Illinois and a bachelor of science degree in 1928 from the Lewis Institute in Chicago. He obtained a master’s degree and doctorate at Northwestern University. In 1967 he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from WWU. “He represents the characteristics of the ideal Christian educator,” said WWU president William H. Shephard.

Although he was an administrator for much of his career, his first love was teaching. Students and staff remember him as one who challenged them to sound research, graduate education, and scholarly activities.

At the time of his death, Christian was recruiting support for this scholarship fund which he created because of his interest in the WWU history program. Because of Christian’s efforts, the history department chose to name the scholarship in his honor.

This scholarship is awarded to upper-division history majors.

“The greatest thing this generation can do is to lay a few steppingstones for the next generation.”–Charles F. Kettering


A.J. and Gladys E. Christiansen Memorial Scholarship

In the northwest corner of North Dakota, A.J. and Gladys E. Christiansen will be remembered as neighbors—the highest compliment in a small farming community. The Christiansens will also be remembered as Seventh-day Adventist Christians. Their lives were built around their church and their farm activities.

The Christiansens raised grain crops and operated a dairy near Bowbells, N.D. Their livelihood and years of saving permitted them to give their two children, Susan and Sidney ’73, an opportunity for Christian education. “My parents were dedicated, hardworking people who believed in their church and who believed that a quality education was important,” says Sidney.

As children, Mr. Christiansen’s parents immigrated from Denmark. Mrs. Christiansen was a fifth-generation American with a strong English heritage.

Late in their lives the Christiansens received an unexpected inheritance and wanted it to advance the mission of the church. Sidney helped his parents accomplish their wishes by establishing this scholarship after his father’s death in 1991. Mrs. Christiansen died in 1988.

“My four years at Walla Walla University were indeed a highlight of my life and I will be forever grateful to my parents for making that opportunity possible,” says Sidney.

Students with farming backgrounds, North Dakota residents, and premedical and theology students will be given first consideration for this scholarship.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”–Leviticus 19:18


Class Scholarships

“We, the senior class, are happy to inform you of our recent decision regarding our class gift. The monies shall be applied toward an endowment fund for the purpose of student aid.” This letter announced the intention of one Walla Walla University graduating class to set up a scholarship endowment fund. Additional classes that have set up funds to benefit student aid are the classes of 1954, 1955, 1965, 1971, 1978, 1983, 1984, 1996 and 2003.

Although the sizes and amounts differ, the purpose is always the same—to help students. Class representatives gathering monies for these funds are Stewart Shankel ’54 of Redlands, Calif.; Joseph Riederer ’55 of Juneau, Alaska; Gerald Miller ’65 of Vancouver, Wash.; Mary Lou Ham ’71 of Sherwood, Ore.; Doug Taylor ’78 of College Place, Wash.; Mark Smith ’83 of Anchorage, Alaska; Bob McGhee ’84 of Dublin, Ohio; Tom Hamel ’96 of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Christopher Santana ’03 of Berthoud, Colo.

Class representatives say that working together to provide scholarships benefits them as well as students. To raise these funds, classes have sent letters and held reunion dinners and other events.

 “Monuments crumble and fountains crack, but a class gift to an endowment fund is
a practical way to leave a lasting legacy that will influence the future of your alma mater.” –Unknown


Class of 1989 Edwin L. Zaugg Memorial Scholarship

At their graduation, the Class of 1989 announced this scholarship as their class gift, a memorial tribute to one of their classmates.

Edwin L. Zaugg was born in 1966 in Walla Walla. As a youth, Zaugg loved animals and nature, was an avid bird watcher, and bred and tamed parrots. His father, Wayne E. Zaugg, professor of chemistry at Loma Linda University, La Sierra campus, died when Zaugg was 13. His mother, Sandy, later took a job at Far Eastern Academy where Ed graduated in 1985.

Spending summers working at Sunset Lake Youth Camp in Washington, he enjoyed his reputation as a bare-foot water skier. After working with friendly Walla Walla University students “the 40 nicest people I’ve known,” Zaugg enrolled at the college in 1985.

With the goal of becoming a photographer for the National Geographic Society, Zaugg majored in communication. His photographs were used in college brochures, periodicals, and other promotional material.

With a lively sense of humor and delight in life, Ed became known for his friendliness, loyalty, and sensitivity to the hurts of others.

Family was important to him and he wanted to have his family with him during his senior year. Zaugg convinced his mother to apply for a women’s dean opening on campus. She arrived to fill the post in August 1988. In November 1988 Ed died of injuries sustained in an auto accident enroute to Portland, Ore.

This scholarship is awarded to students planning to complete their undergraduate studies at WWU during the following academic year.

“Our class chose to establish this scholarship in honor of Ed’s talent and to memorialize how important he was to us.” –Linda Abdel-Malek, President of the Class of 1989


Verlin L. and Thelma Kumalae Cochran Memorial Scholarship

Verlin Cochran was a Western Oregon farm boy who never lost his love of adventure. As he began his Walla Walla University days in 1925, he would often leave school to ride the rails around the Pacific Northwest.

Thelma Kumalae met Verlin at WWU in the winter of 1925. She was one of eight children from an affluent, well-known Honolulu family. During the next few years as many as four of the Kumalae children were enrolled at WWU at the same time. They became known for their singing and ukelele talents.

While in college Verlin worked at the Color Press and became a skilled printer. He began publishing the first newspaper in Mt. Angel, Ore., soon after he and Thelma were married in May 1928. In 1933 they moved to Hawaii where they published a local paper. They fled the islands with their children, Betty Jean and Lenhart ’59, after the attack on Pearl Harbor and eventually settled in Mountain View, Calif., in 1943. Thelma worked at Pacific Press sewing signatures and Verlin worked for various printing shops in the San Francisco Bay area.

Their marriage lasted 48 years until the death of Verlin in 1976. Thelma passed away in 1998. This scholarship is funded by their son, Lenhart, and his wife, Rowena, as a token of thanks to his parents. It is awarded to engineering and mathematics majors.

“Success is not measured by the heights one attains, but by the obstacles one overcomes in its attainment.” –Booker T. Washington


L.P. "Jim" and Jane B. Corbett Scholarships

London Pierre “Jim” Corbett was born in1898. His father’s career as a railway trainman forced the Corbett family to transfer frequently, which resulted in Jim attending 14 schools in eight years. The family eventually settled in Walla Walla.

In 1921, Jim boarded a ship headed for Alaska, where he negotiated various jobs moving coal, repairing railroad tracks, and building a bridge. At the end of the summer, Jim had earned the $400 needed for college.

Jim began college at Washington Missionary College (now Columbia Union College), where he met Jesse Evans, who he would later be married to for 54 years. After one year at WMC, he returned to Walla Walla. His love of reading and writing led him to study English at Walla Walla University. Majoring in English, he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1925.

Jim held a number of jobs throughout the years including working as a radio announcer, hospital administrator, space helmet manufacturer, monkey gland salesman, poet, galley steward, lecturer at UCLA, and vice-president of the Sawyer School of Business.

In 1984 Jim married E. Jane Brown. They were together until Jim’s death on October 4, 1999.

The couple established three scholarships: the L.P. “Jim” Corbett English Scholarship, the L.P. “Jim” Corbett History Scholarship and the L.P. “Jim” and Jane Corbett Student Aid Scholarship.

“It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.”–Helen Keller


Edward F. Cross Engineering Scholarship

When it was suggested that Edward F. Cross try teaching his response was, “I wouldn’t teach for $50 a day!” That was in 1929. Eighteen years later he accepted George Bowers’ invitation to start an engineering program at Walla Walla University. He took the job, teaching for $49.50 a week.

Although it was a 50 percent salary loss, Cross had a firm conviction that the call was from the Lord. “Anything but a positive answer would place us in the same position as the rich young ruler,” said Cross. So in 1947 he left his job in New York to establish the first engineering program in Seventh-day Adventist education.

Serving as a faculty member for 32 years and as the head of the department for 27 years, Cross was an honorary doctor of engineering and professor emeritus of Walla Walla University. The school he founded has been renamed the Edward F. Cross School of Engineering. During his term, Cross supervised the preparation of plans and construction of 10 campus buildings. More than 350 engineering majors graduated under him. In spite of his abundant contributions, this dean emeritus for the School of Engineering said, “No one person could have built this program by himself.” He continually credited God, a loyal faculty, and his wife, Helen, for sustaining him.

Both Cross and his wife were honored at the 1988 Alumni Homecoming Banquet with a standing ovation for their devotion. “It is almost 41 years to the hour and day when I stopped fighting the Lord,” said Cross, referring to his initial reluctance to establish the engineering program.

Cross died in 2002 and Helen in 1995. This scholarship is awarded to engineering students.

“If a cause is worthwhile, then it’s worth all you have.” –Edward F. Cross


Vera Davis-Michel Merit Scholarship

From her earliest childhood, Vera Ann Davis loved to go to school. She was an eager learner and a successful student. After graduating from Gem State Academy in 1922, due to the Great Depression in the United States, to her bitter disappointment, her parents were unable to help her go directly to college. Instead she had to go to work for a year, after which she enrolled in the Normal Course at WWC. In 1923, she could not afford to live in the residence hall but lived instead with President W. I. Smith and his wife for the first year and a half of her college experience.

After finishing the Normal Course in 1925, she was called to be a missionary teacher in China. Since she was only 19 at the time, she accepted a call to teach at Gem State Academy instead. She returned to Walla Walla College in 1927 and had the privilege of living in the residence hall, and participating in more of the extra-curricular activities at school—especially musical ones. She sang beautifully. During her senior year (1928-29) she edited the Mountain Ash.

Using a portion of her first wages as Preceptress, English, and Spanish teacher at Columbia Academy, she paid tuition for two nephews to enroll there (1929-1931). At Laurelwood Academy, where she was also Preceptress and English teacher (1931-1932), she paid tuition for three nephews. No amount of self-denial intimidated her. 

After her marriage to Raymond S. Michel in August, 1935, she found herself back teaching at Walla Walla College so her new husband could get HIS college education. His graduation in 1940 meant that she had been at Walla Walla College intermittently for a 17-year-period.   

Vera’s interest in providing education for others never waned. While partnering with her husband in several business ventures, they sponsored many scholarships. Many people earned college degrees while employees at United Medical Laboratories, a company Ray and Vera founded. Eventually, they were responsible for establishing an accredited school of Medical Technology. In addition, they funded the Michel Foundation, which sponsored graduate school fellowships to promising graduate students such as Niels-Erik Andreasen and Lawrence T. Geraty.

When Ray and Vera sold their business interests in 1972, Vera turned her first efforts to helping a Vietnamese family learn English. 

In everything she did, Vera held herself to high standards. Always courageous in tackling difficult tasks and unselfish in sharing the rewards of her efforts, Vera possessed the durable virtues of tenacity, orderliness, frugality, and generosity. We are confident and hopeful that a scholarship rewarding the efforts of a young person who has also set high goals, is an appropriate memorial to someone whose consistent and exemplary life is an inspiration to all who knew her.

The Vera Davis-Michel Merit Scholarship supports outstanding graduates in the English Department who are interested in teaching.


Edward F. and Clara Degering Memorial Educational Scholarship

Edward F. Degering attended Forest Home Academy, Walla Walla University, and the University of Washington. He earned an undergraduate degree at Union College in 1924, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Nebraska in 1929 and 1930 respectively. In 1930 he began teaching chemistry at Purdue University and devoted his time to teaching, research, and writing.

Degering was the author of a series of science books: An Outline of the Chemistry of Carbohydrates, An Outline of Organic Chemistry, An Outline of Organic Nitrogen Compounds, Fundamental Organic Chemistry, and The Quadri-Service Manual of Organic Chemistry, all of which were widely received.

He authored or coauthored more than 150 scientific or technical papers, held a number of patents and was a regular contributor to Chemical Condensates, What’s Been Going On, and Chemical Footprints.

He was a member of numerous academic honor societies and was a charter member of the Executive/Professional Hall of Fame. He was named emeritus to the American Chemical

Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Chemists. He is included in the 1966 edition of the American Honorarium.

When he died, Degering was the retired head of the Radiation Chemistry Laboratory at Natick, Mass.

“The measure of life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.” –Peter Marshall


Claude and Annie Deming Memorial Outstanding Employment Recognition Award

Claude Deming was a farmer, licensed plumber, handyman, and also worked in logging. Annie Deming was a homemaker and mother, and helped out on their small farm. Neither of the Demings graduated from college. Mr. Deming became a self-educated man after completing high school in Minnesota and Mrs. Deming had only an eighth-grade education.

In the early 1930s, while living in North Dakota, they became Seventh-day Adventists. Both were active as leaders in local churches in Oregon and Washington, serving as elder, deacon, deaconess, Sabbath School leaders, and in other offices.

Their six children attended Walla Walla University: Robert C. Deming ’68, Donald G. Deming ’48, Margaret A. Calkins ’48, Doris M. Eigenberg att. ’52-53, Ruth M. Roberts ’60, and Marietta L. Deming ’61.

They believed strongly in Christian education, and when Mr. Deming was an older man living in College Place, he enjoyed conversing with students on philosophical and religious topics.

The Deming family established this scholarship in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Deming. Mr. Deming died in 1984 and Mrs. Deming in 1989. Christian education scholarships are in keeping with their wishes, in fact, they sponsored several student missionaries.

“The best-educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed.”–Helen Keller


Loren Dickinson Communications Scholarship

Dedication to students has been the hallmark of Loren Dickinson’s experience at Walla Walla University. Students could always count on an open door and a receptive listener whether they needed to plan a speech or talk over a spiritual decision.

Dickinson taught at WWU for 38 years and chaired the Department of Communication for 22 years. He received his doctoral degree in speech communication from the University of Denver in 1968.

He served as the first station manager for WWU’s radio station, KGTS, when it signed on as the first FM station in Walla Walla in 1963, and he oversaw the growth of the station for more than 20 years.

Dickinson became the voice of Evensong, and with Melvin K. West, established a 35-year tradition that brought a time of spiritual reflection at the close of many Sabbaths on campus.

He dedicated significant energy to fundraising, and represented the college on the Milton Murray Foundation, a worldwide Seventh-day Adventist philanthropic organization. He promoted student scholarships by developing the Josephine Cunnington Edwards Scholarship and by promoting the WWU Faculty/Staff Scholarship.

Dickinson was awarded the Burlington Northern Outstanding Faculty Award in 1987, the Alumni Association Faculty Award in 1990, and the Education Club Honored Faculty Award in 1995. He was honored as the WWU Distinguished Faculty Lecturer for 1999.

The Loren Dickinson Communication Scholarship is awarded to freshman communication students.

“A teacher’s best work may well take place not in the classroom but in the sanctuary of the office.”–Loren Dickinson


Dr. Ralph A. Drake Memorial Scholarship

Ralph A. Drake was born in 1898 in Fresno, Calif. He married Hazeldel Sturgis in 1922 and together they established a farm. After a fire destroyed their farmhouse, Hazeldel, a nurse by profession, persuaded Ralph to pursue studies in medicine. He received his M.D. from Loma Linda University in 1933.

In the fall of 1933, Dr. and Mrs. Drake moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, where he established a medical practice. The Drake’s son, Harold ’48, recalls accompanying his father on a house call that required them to wade through snow drifts to reach a patient who lived in the country. Dr. Drake worked long hours, regarding his work and involvement in church as his life’s honor and achievement. “He told me once that his work was also his recreation and his hobby,” says Harold. Dr. Drake completed a 50-year career in medicine before retiring at the age of 85. He died in 1995; Hazeldel Drake died in 1988.

“Unless we give part of ourselves away, unless we can live with other people and understand them and help them, we are missing the most essential part of our own human lives.”–Harold Taylor


Lars and Anna Dybdahl Scholarship

Anna Nelson was a schoolteacher and became the first Seventh-day Adventist teacher in Canada. She also served five years as a missionary in Tahiti, learning French in the process. In 1922, she married a widower, Lars Dybdahl, and her work as a teacher helped prepare her for the task of raising Lars’ six children. Lars and Anna cared enough about Christian education to send all six of their children to church schools from grade school through college. Even though Lars never went to college, he made sure his children did and he and Anna continued to support Christian education by sponsoring other young people in school after their own had graduated.

This scholarship was established in their honor by their son, Dr. G.L. Dybdahl, and his family. Their hope is that the legacy of support for Adventist education that Lars and Anna began will continue.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”–Eleanor Roosevelt


Josehpine Cunnington Edwards Memorial Scholarship

Josephine Cunnington Edwards was born in Muncie, Ind., in 1904. Mrs. Edwards and her husband, Lowell A. Edwards, struggled to obtain their education during the depression years. Mr. Edwards graduated from Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) in 1938. Mrs. Edwards graduated in 1944.

Mrs. Edwards loved to write and was published frequently in the Youth’s Instructor, a weekly denominational publication for young people. Her first book, Loom of Life, was published in 1938. She has had 34 books published including several inspired by a seven-year term of mission service in Africa. She is pictured here in a favorite pose with a gun from the Livingstone era of African exploring. In 1978 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Andrews University.

Mrs. Edwards spent her retirement years in the Walla Walla Valley before her death in August 1993. Her family and friends established this scholarship in her memory. It is awarded to communication majors.

“Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It doesn’t come before.” –Shelby Steele


Mary Garner Esary Memorial Scholarship

Mary Garner Esary committed her life to educating others. She began a teaching career at her former high school, Walla Walla High School, after graduating from Whitman College in 1931. In 1936 she moved to Western Washington to accept a teaching position with the Auburn School District. It was during this period that she met Tom Esary. They were married at the Methodist Parsonage in Walla Walla, Wash., in June 1942.

In 1950 she returned to Walla Walla with her husband and again taught English at Walla Walla High School. During the early 1960s Mary decided to return to college to pursue a master’s degree. She contacted the University of Washington with the idea of enrolling in the psychology program, but was advised she could do just as well at Walla Walla University. Mary completed her master’s degree in education at WWU in 1964 and was then employed by the Intermediate School District, the operation of which covered the lower Inland Empire.

In her later years she exercised her talents as a businesswoman, managing real estate that she and her husband acquired over the years. Mary passed away in 1996 at the age of 86.

This scholarship is awarded to students attending their first year at Walla Walla University.

“The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do.” –James M. Barrie


Faculty/Staff Scholarship

It began as an idea at a Faculty/Staff Retreat. At the annual gathering some time ago, an informal conversation turned to the tough times facing WWU.

During the mid-’80s, a decline in enrollment prompted campus-wide budget cuts. “We wanted and needed to help in some way, and helping students stay in school was the best way to do it,” says Loren Dickinson, professor emeritus of communication and one of the fund’s organizers.

The endowment was established in 1988 and grew little by little as a few people steadily contributed. In 1993 the first scholarship was awarded. Renewed efforts then began to help the endowment grow. Now more than 300 WWU faculty and staff are invited to give to the scholarship. “They feel they want to give back to the place and people who have been important to their gainful living,” says Mel Lang, co-founder of the Faculty/Staff Scholarship.

Some have chosen to deduct a monthly scholarship gift from their paycheck. “It’s only a few dollars a month, but it feels good to do something for the students,” says one staff member. “After all, they’re the only reason we’re here.”

“These contributors are to be commended for their vision to help students,” says Karen Johnson, former vice president for university advancement.

The Faculty/Staff Scholarship assists undergraduate students.

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” –Herbert Spencer


Norma S. Gardner Memorial English Scholarship

Norma Nelson Gardner was born in 1913, in Bremerton, Wash. She was salutatorian of her senior class at Bremerton High School and then attended Walla Walla University, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in English in 1936. In 1937 she married Raymond Gardner, also a WWU graduate. She was dean of women and taught English at Columbia Academy before moving to Loma Linda, Calif., where her husband attended medical school.

Norma was a tireless advocate of Adventist education and contributed substantial amounts to help young people who could not afford an Adventist education. She also gave her time and energy as a builder, substitute teacher and volunteer at schools. She conveyed her passion for Adventist education to her children, Cheryl Kopp att., and Brent Gardner ’69, who both attended Auburn Academy, Walla Walla University, and Loma Linda University.

Norma was a gifted writer who wrote short stories and poetry for special occasions. Her service to others included creating a model Dorcas Society in her home town of Everett, Wash. She became an advisor to many who sought her wisdom and those whose lives were troubled.

Marilyn Jordan, in an “Introductory Letter to God,” described her as follows: “She has devoted her life to Your service, and whatever she did, she did with a gusto and generosity of spirit and resources … Her love knew no cultural or economic boundaries and her generosity and genuine concern for those in need was timeless.”

Norma Gardner died in 1993. This scholarship has been established by her children in memory of her dedication and love in helping deserving students achieve their highest goals. It is awarded to English majors.

“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.”–Heda Bejar


Wilford and Emma Goffar Scholarship

Wilford and Emma Goffar both attended Walla Walla University in the 1930s.  Wilford graduated with a B.A. in Religion, while Emma attained her Nursing degree.  The two married in 1940 and started their careers, Wil in pastoral work and Emma in nursing.

The 1940s were difficult times, for the nation and for the newlyweds.  The Great Depression loomed large, and employment was never certain.  In the very beginning of his career, before becoming a pastor, Wilford could only find work doing photo-slide binding for area evangelists.  Glass slides of dragons and multi-horned beasts, put together by hand with adhesive tape, became the bread and butter for the Goffar household.  Before long, feeling a call to be of a more direct usefulness in what was called “the Work,” Wilford became an evangelist himself.  Emma served without pay as his assistant slide-manufacturer and health lecturer.  In their first regular pastorate, the couple rented the unheated basement of the church for their domicile, and nearly froze that winter as they chased rats around the damp, barren rooms and shivered through the nights.

Wilford and Emma never forgot the lessons of frugality absorbed during that time, and the blessing that comes of Godly sacrifice even in the hardest times.  Throughout their entire lives they contributed to the church.  Wil and Emma were committed to Christian education as well, and it is in honor of their dedicated lives that this scholarship has been established.


Albert E. and Reta J. Graham Memorial Scholarship

Reta J. Graham was a cook, Albert E. Graham was a landscaper, neither graduated from college, neither was wealthy, but together they helped 19 students get through Walla Walla University.

“When our son left for Loma Linda University we got a call from the Walla Walla University Academy,” said Reta Graham. “They said someone from the Army had brought their little sister, would we take her? From then on we had one or two students. We let them live with us, fed them, paid some bills, helped with tuition, took them shopping … If someone had a need we couldn’t fill, we made it a family project to ask our neighbors and friends.”

“The memories are the reward,” Mrs. Graham recalled. She remembered vacations when they would load up the panel car with five or six kids, plus luggage and friends, and head for the hot springs. She remembered shopping trips with the girls, Friday-night suppers, weddings, and the many times she revived her studying pupils with cinnamon rolls.

“Taking them was a hardship,” she said, “but we’d do it all over again. My friends would get new furniture, but I thought seeing these kids make something of themselves was more lasting than furniture.”

Mrs. Graham was born in 1908 and died in 1996. Mr. Graham was born in 1907 and died in 1988.

This scholarship, founded by the Graham’s son, Richard ’56, is awarded to students who work and need financial assistance.

“If we’d put things behind us, live more frugally, and think of our children, we’d be better off.” –Reta Graham


Grellmann Family Scholarship

The Grellmann Family Endowed Scholarship, in honor of Georg and Charleene Grellmann, was established by their five children and families.

Georg Grellmann was born in Falkenstein im Vogtland, Germany. As a teenager, Georg won a national athletic and occupational competition in pre-WWII Germany and was awarded a scholarship to study dentistry. Instead, he was drafted into the German army and fought most of the war in Russia as an infantryman. He became a prisoner of war in the United States and England, and then moved to South Africa where he graduated from Helderberg College.  He served 12 years as a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, pioneering among the Vendas of South Africa and then serving in Burundi and Rwanda. Georg moved his family to Canada in 1967, pastoring churches in Winnipeg, Manitoba and later in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. 

After Georg's first wife, Helen, died in 1975, he married Charleene Riffel, who instantly became the mother of five children. Charleene was born in Shattuck, Oklahoma. During WWII, she was awarded a scholarship to St. Anthony’s Nursing School in Amarillo, Texas as part of the Cadet Nurses Corps. She later obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington Missionary College and a Master of Science in Nursing Administration from Loma Linda University, where she became the Director of Surgical Nursing.

After their marriage, Georg and Charleene served in ministry in Chicago, Illinois and Monroe and Snohomish, Washington. Georg and Charleene retired to Walla Walla, Washington, where their children either worked or attended Walla Walla University. During their retirement, they shared their love of adventure and mission work by serving together in Sierra Leone, and were also active in the Walla Walla University Church. They enjoyed visiting their thirteen grandchildren until Georg’s death in 2012 and Charleene’s in 2014. 

Said the Grellman children, “Our family benefited from those who went before us in providing financial support to make a high quality Christian education possible, and we wanted to follow that example. It’s also a way to honor our parents’ sacrifice for us and the love they had for WWU, its students, faculty and extended community – we believe they would have been proud.”


John J. Hafner Music Scholarship

John Hafner was a veteran teacher with more than 20 years of successful conducting experience when he joined the faculty at Walla Walla University. He had previously taught at Atlantic Union College, Washington Missionary College (now Columbia Union College), Mount Vernon Academy, Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University), and Pacific Union College.

At WWU Hafner assumed leadership of the band and orchestra. A member of the music faculty from 1955 until 1966, Hafner was the first to receive a key in the WWU chapter of Beta Kappa Lambda, a national music honor society. In 1985 the college recognized him for his contributions by awarding him the honorary rank of emeritus professor.

Hafner graduated from Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) in 1941. He received a master’s degree from the Chicago Musical College and attended the Julliard School of Music. Hafner passed away in 2001.

This scholarship is awarded to music students studying strings.

 “These three things—work, will, success—fill human existences.  Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy.  Work passes these doors, and at the end of the journey success comes in to crown one’s efforts.”–Louis Pasteur


Lovyl and Mary Halge Memorial Worthy Student Scholarship

Mary ’39 and Lovyl ’38 Hagle first met as classmates at Battleford Academy in Canada. After academy they continued their education at Canadian Junior College (now Canadian University College). The Hagles were married in 1928. Soon after, Mr. Hagle received a letter inviting him to work for the church as a Young People’s Secretary, which he did for one year.

During the Depression the couple returned to Canadian Junior College to help construct new buildings to replace those destroyed by fire. Mr. Hagle completed his studies there in 1932.

Wishing to continue their education, the Hagles worked and saved all they could to

attend Walla Walla University. In 1935 they came to the college with the assurance from Frank Peterson, the business manager, that if they were willing to work he would see them through. While at college, Mr. Hagle worked as head of the building and maintenance department. He graduated in 1938 with an education major. Mrs. Hagle graduated in 1939 with a major in home economics.

After college the Hagles returned to Canada where Mr. Hagle worked for a business and Mrs. Hagle taught home economics at Oshawa Missionary College.

The couple returned to the United States to live in Oregon where he worked as the chief engineer at a large sawmill, and owned and operated a business. Mrs. Hagle also worked with the business and taught home economics at Laurelwood Academy.

The couple spent their retirement years in College Place. Mrs. Hagle died in 1992. Mr. Hagle died in 1993.

The Hagles provided for this scholarship through their estate.

“Education is the knowledge of how to use the whole of oneself.”–Henry Ward Beecher


Richard and Dena Hammill Scholarship

Ever since college, Richard ’36 and Dena Hammill ’36 were a part of the Lord’s work. Four months after graduation they were married and Dr. Hammill began serving as a ministerial intern in the Washington Conference.

In 1940 the Hammills were assigned to missionary service in Vietnam. Just prior to the beginning of World War II they were transferred to service in the Philippine Islands, when, during the Japanese occupation of the islands, they were placed in internment camps, first in Baguio and Santo Tomas and later in the Los Banos camp. There, on February 23, 1945, they were rescued by an air drop of United States parachute troops.

After returning to the United States, Pastor Hammill earned a master’s degree from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and in 1948 began teaching in the religion department at Southern Missionary College (now Southern Adventist University). After earning a doctorate in Old Testament Studies from the University of Chicago in 1950, he served as academic dean at Southern Missionary College. From 1955 to 1963 he served in the Department of Education at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. In 1963 he became president of Andrews University where he served until 1976. He left the position to become vice president of the General Conference until he retired in 1980.

Mrs. Hammill graduated from Bainville High School in Montana in 1933. After spending one year at Sheyenne River Academy in North Dakota studying religion courses, she enrolled in the teacher training program at Walla Walla University. From 1936 to 1940 she helped her husband in pastoral work. She later served as a secretary, librarian assistant, and archivist for the General Conference.

Dr. Hammill died in 1997. Mrs. Hammill died in 2005.

“If you want to have a happy life, take up giving as a hobby when you’re young.” –Arthur F. Lenehan


Thomas Hampson Humanities Merit Scholarship

Thomas Hampson, renowned baritone and Southeast Washington native, first honored Walla Walla University during its 1992 centennial celebration by giving a concert for the Walla Walla community.

His benefit concert established the Thomas Hampson Humanities Merit Scholarship. Hampson returned to perform a second time in 1995, after which the scholarship was named in his honor. Subsequent concerts featuring Mark O’Connor, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Atlan, and Sweet Honey in the Rock have also benefited this endowment.

The Thomas Hampson Humanities Merit Scholarship is awarded to juniors and seniors studying in one of the humanities departments or in the interdisciplinary humanities program.

“Art as art, not art for art, must be life enhancing.” –Bernard Berenson


Pauline Hart Memorial Social Work Scholarship

Young Pauline Hart grew up in Staten, N.Y., with her grandparents. As a young child her parents were separated. She used her experience to become a pioneer social worker in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Hart attended Adventist Midwest German Seminary (academy), then Washington Missionary College (now Columbia Union College). She taught elementary church school for many years and then went back to school and earned a master of social work degree from Columbia University in New York. Hart was one of the first Seventh-day Adventists to receive a master’s degree in social work, earning her the title of “the first Adventist social worker.”

The City of Denver hired her as a social worker specializing in the problems of children. Hart often said she “couldn’t have been effective without God.” She often prayed before seeing her clients. Through her connections to social agencies, Hart was instrumental in founding a model community service center for Denver in 1951.

She was a popular lecturer and had a special burden for children. Often in her spare time she would sew beautiful dresses for little girls.

Hart taught at Walla Walla University in 1976 for one quarter. She was so impressed with the social work students that she later sent $1,000 to be awarded to a social work major. Hart died in 1986 and part of her estate was bequeathed to WWU. Friends established the scholarship in her honor to carry on the legacy of helping. This scholarship is awarded to social work students.

“Meeting the needs of a person is a basic social work skill that is also biblical.”–Wilma Hepker


Richard and Georgiana Hayden Christian Service Scholarship

Richard and Georgiana Hayden spent 38 years as foreign missionaries in the Inca Union of South America. They were both dedicated to mission service and taking the gospel of Jesus to people of foreign countries.

After graduating from Walla Walla University in 1930, Richard married Georgiana Grandy who also attended WWU. Together they motored up the Amazon River to their first mission post where they worked side by side with pioneer missionary Ferdinand Stahl. Those early years were spent accompanying Elder Stahl in canoes, on horseback, or walking thousands of miles through primitive Amazon jungles visiting schools, churches, and groups of believers among the many Indian tribes. Later in his 38-year career, Richard was an educator, president of three missions, and secretary of the Inca Union.

During that time Richard and Georgiana developed a special interest in training young people to be church workers. They encouraged many young people to seek an education and provided financial assistance to students who are today leaders of the Adventist church in South America. The book From Football Field to Mission Field, written in 1951, tells the story of those early years.

In keeping with the Hayden’s great love of missions, this scholarship will be awarded to students who choose to spend time in mission or Christian service.

“I slept and dreamed that life was happiness. I awoke and saw that life was service. I served and found that in service happiness is found.” –Rabindranath Tagore


Rodney Heisler Engineering Scholarship

Rodney Heisler was born to John and Irene Heisler on January 1, 1942 in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, where his ancestors homesteaded on land received from William Penn. Rod attended public elementary school and then spent four happy years at Blue Mountain Academy, supporting himself by working at Harris Pine Mills during the school year and summers.

Upon the advice of BMA’s dean of girls, Betty Wood (McGinnis), he enrolled at Walla Walla College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in 1965. He continued his education at Washington State University, where he received an MSEE in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science in 1970.

In 1964 he married Elizabeth (Liz) Kutzner in Takoma Park, Maryland. They were happily married for forty-seven years and raised three beautiful children, Donald, Jon and Tamara.

In January of 1970 Professor Edward Cross invited Rod to join the Engineering faculty at WWU, where he taught for thirty-seven years until his retirement in 2006. He also served the University as Vice President for Academic Administration from 1983 to 1986, and as Dean of the Edward F. Cross School of Engineering from 1987 to 1997. He was awarded the status of Emeritus Professor in 2007.

Rod passed away on March 8, 2012 in Port Angeles, Washington.


Paul and Frances Heubach Memorial Theology Scholarship

Paul Heubach was born in Winnemucca, Nev., October 22, 1908. Frances England was born in Welsh, La., January 10, 1909. Paul met his future wife Frances, at Lodi Academy in California, where they were married July 10, 1930. Both Paul and Frances began as Elementary school teachers. Paul then served as a Ministerial Intern in the Northern California Conference for three years. Paul returned to Pacific Union College for a Bachelor of Arts degree. Later, he received a Masters degree in Theology at Andrews University, and was awarded Professor Emeritus at Loma Linda University.

Paul spent four years teaching Bible at Lodi Academy. He was ordained as a Seventh-day Adventist Minister in 1939. He then spent two years as pastor of the East Oakland and Hayward Churches in California. For the next six years he was Associate Professor of Religion and Evangelism at La Sierra College, followed by five years as Associate Professor of Applied Christianity at Loma Linda University. He then became Associate Pastor of the White Memorial Church and Counselor at the White Memorial Clinic in Los Angeles, Calif. Frances also worked at the Clinic.

Paul and Frances moved to Walla Walla University in 1952. Paul served as Dean of the School of Theology and Pastor of the College Church. He was the person most instrumental in leading to the construction of a new College Church. The small chapel at the side of the church is named in his honor.

In 1963, Paul and Frances returned to Loma Linda University where he served as Professor of Applied Theology and Senior Pastor of the Loma Linda University Church.

After retiring in 1991, he continued to be active as a speaker and teacher. They moved to Mt. Vernon, Wash., in 1999. Frances passed away December 22, 1999 and Paul died February 9, 2001.

Paul and Frances will be remembered for their love of people. They both had a strong belief in the Seventh-day Adventist school system and the anticipated coming of Jesus.

Paul and Frances established this scholarship for theology students.

“To give happiness is a far nobler goal than to attain it: what we exist for is much more a matter of relations than a matter of individual progress: much more a matter of helping others to heaven than of getting there ourselves.” –Lewis Carroll


Juanita Wagner Holm Memorial Nursing Scholarship

Juanita Holm att., worked for 29 years in foreign missions. She and her husband, Jess ’42, formed a nurse-doctor team dedicated to serving others, often in areas in crisis including Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Juanita inherited her dedication to service from her parents, August and Lillian Wagner. The Wagner’s taught their children by example the value of hard work, helping others, and spreading the good news of the gospel. August and Lillian also believed in Adventist higher education and established a family tradition by providing Juanita, as well as her four brothers, with the opportunity to attend a Seventh-day Adventist college. Each of the Wagner’s 27 grandchildren were encouraged to attend an Adventist college or university and many of their great-grandchildren followed suit.

Both Juanita and Jess completed their education at Loma Linda University. Juanita trained to be a nurse and Jess received his M.D., specializing in surgery. Jess died in 1989 followed by Juanita in 1996.

This scholarship was established with a gift from the estate of August and Lillian Wagner in memory of their daughter and will be awarded to nursing students.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” –Robert Louis Stevenson


Archie and Helen Howatson Nursing Scholarship

Archie and Helen met in high school and were married in 1948 shortly after Helen completed her degree in nursing education at Walla Walla University.

Helen ’48 began her nursing career at Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Wash. After completing her degree, she worked at Seattle General Hospital until she retired in 1980 with more than 40 years in the nursing profession. Archie began his career working for Weyerhauser and several other timber companies as a timber faller. Following his years in the timber industry he served 20 years with the Seattle Parks Department.

In their leisure time Archie and Helen made frequent trips to Cle Elum Lake in Washington where they had purchased property in 1967. They worked together to construct a vacation home and enjoyed the quiet beauty of the area. After Helen’s death in 1994 Archie found less and less joy in spending time alone at the lake. In 1996 he donated the vacation house to WWU in Helen’s memory.

This scholarship is awarded to nursing students.

“Our most valuable possessions are those which can be shared without lessening; those which when shared, multiply.” –Hugh Prather


Oland F. Hubbs Memorial Theology Scholarship

Oland “Olie” Fillmore Hubbs was born in 1898 in a cabin Daniel Boone is said to have visited. The cabin was located exactly on the Tennessee and North Carolina border. Since Mr. Hubbs was born in the bedroom it could be said he is of North Carolinian descent.

A highlight of Mr. Hubb’s youth was spending an afternoon with “Buffalo Bill,” the great buffalo hunter of the Plains, and listening to his hunting stories. In 1905 Mr. Hubbs and his family boarded an emigrant train for Freewater, Ore. He attended Milton High School and Walla Walla University. In 1920 Hubbs married Lydia Price, a Umatilla County school teacher.

He owned and operated the Hubbs Nursery in Milton-Freewater for many years. Mr. Hubbs was cited in Who’s Who in Agriculture for developing a new Red Delicious apple and improving the color of the Red Rome Beauty apple. In 1990 the Soviet government agriculture department invited him to visit the Soviet Union. Regrettably, he was unable to go.

Although the Hubbs never had children, they “adopted” many of Mrs. Hubbs’ students. Mrs. Hubbs made children’s clothing during the Depression, and Mr. Hubbs secretly paid off many students’ bills. He recalled helping one girl buy a wedding dress.

Hubbs died in September 1996 in Milton-Freewater, Ore. Friends remember him as sociable, honest, hardworking, and dependable.

This scholarship is awarded to theology students.

“The gospel needs to go to all the world, and I want to help those who are willing to do God’s work.”–Olie Hubbs


Vera Hubbs Memorial Business Scholarship

Vera Hubbs ’54 was born in New Foundland and lived in Maryland for the first part of her life. When she was seven her family headed for Oregon and settled in Milton-Freewater.

When Hubbs’ husband Lenius Johnson died she decided to go back to school. She graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Walla Walla University.

After graduating she served as dean of women at WWU and Columbia Academy. Residence hall residents remember her as a good dean, but as one whom they could never get anything past. Hubbs was notably the lightest sleeper on campus and would wake up at the slightest stirring of a party.

Hubbs eventually married Lee Folkes, a Montana wheat farmer. In Montana she taught at an eight-grade church school in Kalispell. After a farming accident, the two moved back to the Walla Walla area. Folkes died soon after. In her sunset years, Vera married her childhood friend Olie Hubbs. She died in 1980.

Hubbs is remembered for her leadership in 4-H and in Pathfinders as a master guide. She was an avid seamstress and cook, and served her home church as a secretary and treasurer. “She was a very spiritual person,” says her daughter, Louise Larson. “I use her Bible today because it’s all marked from her hours of study.”

This scholarship is awarded to business students.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” –Charles Dickens


Dr. and Mrs. Harold Huber Scholarship

Motivated by the importance of helping young people receive a higher education, Dr. and Mrs. Harold Huber established the Dr. and Mrs. Harold Huber Endowment Scholarship.

“The college campus was my playground,” Huber says.  He grew up in the 1930s in College Place.  He recalls his father helping with nearly every project on the College Place campus using his carpentry skills.  His father passed on his skills, which Harold used to help build Conard Hall and the library.

Harold pursued his education at Walla Walla College from 1941 to 1943 in pre-dentistry.  He later completed dentistry school at University of Oregon.  Delta (Hurley), Huber’s wife, also attended Walla Walla College and finished her nursing degree after raising their four children.

After being drafted during World War II, Huber used his dentistry skills serving at Edwards Air Force Base.  Later, he decided he wanted to settle in a farming community.  They settled in Heppner, Oregon where Harold became on only dentist in town.  They also farmed wheat and cattle. 

Dr. Huber passed away in 2012 and Mrs. Huber is now retired. Their goal was to encourage all Walla Walla Students to apply for the Dr. and Mrs. Harold Huber Endowment Scholarship.


Wynelle J. Huff Nursing Scholarship

Wynelle J. Huff received a bachelor’s degree from Union College in 1962, a master’s degree from the University of California at San Francisco, and a doctorate from Oregon State University.

She served at Walla Walla University for 13 years, the first two as Assistant Dean of the School of Nursing and the remainder as Dean. “Walla Walla was very good to me and I was able to experience not only professional growth, but also advanced educational opportunities. I left there in 1984 with a commitment in my heart to do something significant for Walla Walla University as opportunities presented themselves.” In 1995 Dr. Huff decided to establish an endowed scholarship to help nursing students complete their education. “I saw so many students who struggled financially, yet who were totally committed to graduating from this special school,” she recalls. “I’d like to help some of those students in my small way.”

Dr. Huff served as the Vice President for Delivery of Care at Adventist Health in Roseville, California after leaving Walla Walla. She stated that she was constantly reminded of the tremendous value that nurses bring to the health care delivery system. “Their scientific knowledge, along with the art of caring, combined with a spiritual orientation, makes an extremely powerful package as they minister to humanity.”

This scholarship is awarded to nursing students.

“There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.” –Henry Van Dyke


Jensen Memorial Math Scholarship

Knut Jensen ’60 believes many people don’t like mathematics because teachers often can’t convey the practical aspects of the subject. “Very few can deliver math so that you see the beauty of its precise and elegant way of expressing facts,” says Jensen.

But Jensen feels lucky. He did have teachers who made it interesting. One who made him appreciate it was Dr. Gordon Hare. Jensen recalls that Hare let each student teach at least one lesson during the class. “I always appreciated that,” says Jensen. “It made me understand that subject much more. I consider Hare my mentor today.” Jensen left Norway to attend Walla Walla University. He received a bachelor’s degree with a major in mathematics in 1960 and then went on to the University of Washington for a master’s degree.

He worked in the computer department for the Boeing/Commercial Airplane Division in Renton, Wash., and then worked for IBM. While at IBM he received several awards including the IBM Symposium Award (an award given to top systems engineers) and a Field’s Innovation Award for inventing a way to measure productivity in local government. He is a Certified Netware Engineer and a Certified Data Processor. Jensen left IBM to establish Pioneer Consulting Inc., a computer consulting service which provides networking and software maintenance services.

This scholarship, established in 1974, is a memorial for Jensen’s son, Brian, who died in a drowning accident in Austria at age nine. The award is given annually to the freshman having the highest average in the beginning three calculus courses.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” –William Butler Yeats


Murray L. and Ilene Johnstone Scholarship

Murray L. Johnstone ’50 was born in Canada and came to the United States when he was a child. His father died when he was 11 and he became the man of the family. He worked so much that after he finished attending Auburn Academy he had a credit balance.

After graduation he entered the Marine Corps on a dare. After the service he married Ilene and graduated from Walla Walla University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Mr. Johnstone worked as an accountant and later taught accounting at the Oregon Institute of Technology. He was one of the first WWU graduates to complete the CPA exam. In 1966 he began working for Wausau Insurance Company. He died in 1993. Friends say he worked hard, enjoyed people, and loved the Lord.

Mrs. Johnstone ’46 first attended WWU at age two, accompanying her mother who was a student. In 1942 she graduated from Auburn Academy and then graduated cum laude from WWU with a major in mathematics. She and Mr. Johnstone were married that fall and the two returned to WWU where she taught math and secretarial subjects.

As the mother of four, Mrs. Johnstone did secretarial work and then earned an elementary education credential so that she could teach while her children attended school. When she retired she planned to help her husband with his part-time accounting and tax service business. Mr. Johnstone encouraged her to take a tax preparer’s exam. She unknowingly applied for the wrong exam and instead became an enrolled agent with the IRS and licensed tax consultant. Today she is carrying on his part-time business.

“When our daughter received a scholarship based on academic achievement, it was such a morale booster that we decided we wanted to pass it on.” –Ilene Johnstone


Carl and Lucile Jones Scholarship

Carl T. and Lucile H. Jones taught at Walla Walla University from 1952 to 1976: Carl in the Chemistry Department, which he chaired from 1959 until his retirement, and Lucile in the School of Nursing, especially in the areas of community and mental health.

Graduates of Columbia Union College, Carl and Lucile taught together at Atlantic Union College, married in 1938, and returned to CUC as faculty where they taught until 1946. In that year, they and their sons John and Carl went to Philippine Union College, where Carl and Lucile taught science and nursing courses until December of 1951.

From 1952 on, Carl and Lucile devoted their professional lives to Walla Walla University. They cared deeply about the school, its community, and above all, for their students. Their home on “A” Street was regularly open to students for social occasions; they genuinely enjoyed getting to know their students personally outside of class.

The thousands of students whose lives they touched remember Carl and Lucile among their most encouraging and enabling teachers. They exemplified the best kind of teaching, so characteristic of Walla Walla University: great respect for students, coupled with high expectations and equally high encouragement. “I never worked so hard—or learned so much,” was a common reaction to one of Lucile’s courses. Carl’s devotion to helping his students master the intricacies of analytical chemistry earned him a plaque for his office, a gift from his appreciative students: “Here is the patience of the saints.”

Having struggled through the Depression years and having seen much poverty in Asia, Carl and Lucile were especially sensitive to the financial needs of students and their families. They often quietly helped out in cases of special need. Accordingly, the Carl and Lucile Jones Endowed Scholarship is established in their memory to carry forward their vision on behalf of students in chemistry and nursing.

“Let us press on, toward maturity.” –Hebrews 6:1


Peggy Henderson Kaye Nursing Scholarship

Peggy Henderson Kaye was born in Plentywood, Mont., in 1937. She grew up in Leavenworth, Wash., where she earned spending money as a child by mowing lawns and picking apples and cherries. Peggy attended Walla Walla University from 1956 to 1960 where she first met her future husband, Robert Kaye. Robert was an anatomy lab instructor in a class Kaye was taking. They would eventually marry in 1977.

In 1960 Peggy graduated with a bachelor of science degree with a major in nursing and began working at Portland Adventist Medical Center. During her 34-year career she worked at Glendale Adventist Hospital, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, North Lincoln Hospital, and at a physician’s office in Lincoln City, Ore. She spent most of her career working in intensive care and cardiac surgery.

Robert graduated from WWU in 1957 with a bachelor of science degree with a major in zoology. He continued his education at Loma Linda University and completed a medical degree in 1961. He spent most of his career in private practice, retiring in 1998.

He and Peggy enjoy golfing and taking trips in their Beach Craft Bonanza airplane.

This scholarship was established in 1995. Robert and Peggy also provide for an annual scholarship. The scholarships are given to junior and senior clinical nursing students at the WWU Portland nursing campus.

“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”–Abraham Lincoln


Helen Wineberg Kendall Women in Business Scholarship

She thought it was an elite finishing school. Fourteen-year-old Helen and her sister, Anah, loaded up their possessions and headed to Meadow Glade Academy, a small Seventh-day Adventist school near Vancouver, Wash.

It wasn’t what she expected, but Helen Wineberg Kendall ’23 stayed. After finishing academy, she went on to Walla Walla University and married her academy sweetheart, Andrew W. Kendall. Both worked in her father’s Vancouver bottling company after graduation. Later the couple built their own plant in Astoria, Ore. Through the years they invested in stocks, timber, and mortgages.

Kendall was a pioneer businesswoman and encouraged women to enter the profession in a time when women were a rarity in the business world. She was also a tremendous advocate of education. Before starting college she resolved not to marry until she received her college degree. After seven years of waiting, she and her husband were married on her graduation day.

She appreciated the moral training she received at WWU and said “the school still offers the world something very important: traditional Christian values.”

Kendall died in 1993 and is survived by two sons: A.W. Kendall, M.D., of Boise, Idaho; and Robert W. Kendall, M.D., of Spokane.

The Helen Wineberg Kendall Women in Business Scholarship is awarded to women business majors.

“God gives opportunities; success depends upon the use made of them.”–Unknown


Meade and Frances Kinzer Endowed Nursing Scholarship

Because they believed a Christian education would provide their children a brighter future with more options for service, Meade and Frances chose to build their home in College Place. They supported their children from Roger's Elementary through college at Walla Walla University and Andrews University. They were convinced that a college education should yield practical results and encouraged all of their children to graduate with a bachelors of science in Nursing. As their children finished college, Meade employed college students in his Finishing Shop, and Frances worked in the College Bookstore. They saw opportunities for service and offered a suite of rooms in their home to needy students. Students who lived with and knew Meade and Frances were blessed with abundant love, joy, and encouragement. 

 

 


Rudolph and Anna Klimes Student Missions Scholarship

Rudolph (Rudy) Klimes and Anna Homenchuck Klimes had a passion for working across international borders to share their faith and advance educational opportunities for others. Rudy was born in Sternberk, Czechoslovakia in 1932 and by the time he was a teenager he had skirted Hitler's holocaust, escaped from under Stalin's Iron Curtain, and immigrated to Montreal, Canada. Anna was one of twelve children born to Ukrainian immigrants who lived in Canada (first Saskatchewan and then British Columbia).

Rudy and Anna spent their early married years at Walla Walla College (1955 to 1957). They later earned advanced degrees and became lifelong students and educators. Rudy was president of colleges in Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong and together they also taught in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Ukraine. The first 80 years of Rudy's life was chronicled in his autobiography, The Adventurous Pilgrim. This fund serves students who are going or coming back from their service abroad. 


Ah and Mary Koorenny Memorial Scholarship

 Abraham and Mary were married in Minot, N.D., on February 11, 1916. They settled on a homestead near Minot and began their family. Three sons, Robert, Ralph, and Raymond, and a daughter, Florence, were born into the family, but a flu epidemic took Florence’s life.

About this time, Abe and Mary attended evangelistic meetings and were both baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist church. When the boys were ready to start school, Abe sold the farm and they moved to Harvey, N.D. to be near Christian education.

Four more children were born in Harvey—three sons, Erwin, Verne, and Floyd, and a daughter, Lou Ella. Even though their home was very small the Koorennys helped other students with room and board so they could attend school. Abe was a truck gardener while Mary and the boys worked alongside him, growing and preparing the vegetables.

Eventually Robert and Ralph came to Walla Walla College and hauled wood for the College to help pay their way. No matter how hard they worked, however, college expenses were too large to overcome. They encouraged their parents to move west so they could live at home and attend school. In 1938, the Koorennys moved to College Place, where Abe worked on Columbia Auditorium for $.25 an hour. A daughter, Donna, was born after the move to Washington.

With tremendous determination and hard work, seven children completed their college education. Ralph and Raymond received doctoral degrees. Verne became a doctor of optometry; Lou Ella earned a bachelor of science degree and became a registered nurse; Robert and Erwin earned master’s degrees in various fields; and Floyd earned two bachelor’s degrees. Donna married Sam LeFore and together they became orchardists in Milton-Freewater, Ore.

The Koorenny family established this scholarship in memory of their parents. Mary died in 1965, and Abe died in 1975.

“Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”—Hebrews 11:25 (KJV)


Robert H. and Thorna Koornenny Scholarship

Of all the places he worked Robert Koorenny ’47 was happiest helping students. In 1974 he became the Walla Walla University development director where he worked to inspire others to help students as well.

Mr. Koorenny was born in 1917 and grew up in North Dakota. Mrs. Koorenny was born one year earlier in Missouri. When she was three, her family moved to College Place when her father, R.L. Collins, became manager of the College Press. For the next 30 years he taught printing and supervised student press workers, including Thorna.

The Koorennys met at WWU and married in 1938. In 1941 Mrs. Koorenny graduated with a secretarial science degree. Mr. Koorenny graduated in 1947 with a theology degree, his progress interrupted by two years of military service.

A lifetime of service distinguished the Koorennys. Mrs. Koorenny worked for the North Pacific Union Conference, the Oregon Conference, Loma Linda Medical Center, Color Press, and other Seventh-day Adventist institutions. Mr. Koorenny taught at two academies and worked in business management at the Pacific Union Conference, Loma Linda Medical Center, and the WWU student finance office and industries. Their busy lives included raising daughters Beverly ’79 and Carol att.

In 1974 when Mr. Koorenny became development director at WWU, the program had existed only one year. In 1980 illness forced Mr. Koorenny to retire. He passed away in 1985. Mrs. Koorenny’s employment at WWU ended where it began—in 1981 she retired from Color Press, formerly the College Press. Mrs. Koorenny passed away in 2003.

“One of the best ways to do yourself a favor is to lend somebody else a helping hand.” –Unknown


Laura G. Larson Memorial Nursing Scholarship

Laura G. Larson was born in 1908 on a farm near Herndon, Kan. The fourth child of German immigrants, Paul and Susanna Goltl, Laura’s childhood goal was to become a registered nurse.

After graduating from Herndon Rural High School, Laura attended Research Hospital School of Nursing in Kansas City, Mo., where she earned her R.N. degree in 1930. She later received a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York City.

Laura was awarded the Idaho Public Health Association’s Annual Professional award in 1964, and in 1965, she became chief of Medicare Certification, determining the eligibility of hospitals and nursing homes to receive Medicare patients.

In 1967, Laura helped to pioneer the Nurse Practitioner program in Idaho, and also received the Idaho Statesman’s Distinguished Citizen award for her work in establishing low-income housing for the elderly. She served on the Idaho State Board of Nursing for six years.

In 1983, Laura helped organize the first Parkinson’s disease support group in Idaho at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in order to help Parkinson’s disease patients and their families cope with the disease.

Laura died in 2002 and part of her estate was bequeathed to WWU. This scholarship is given in honor of her dedication to the field of nursing, and is awarded to nursing students on the Portland campus.

“Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your sick, and, whilst nursing them, minister unto you. Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you, and say: ‘Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you.’” –Mother Teresa


Luella Latham Kretschmar Memorial Scholarship

Luella Latham Kretschmar was born in West Point, Wis., on June 20, 1902. She graduated from Walla Walla University Academy in 1920 and went on to Walla Walla University. Luella met George Kretschmar through an alphabetical seating arrangement in French class and later became his tutor. The romance blossomed and they were married on August 6, 1922.

Dr. Kretschmar convinced Mrs. Kretschmar to switch from studying modern languages to science. Later the two attended the University of Washington where Mrs. Kretschmar earned a bachelor’s degree with a major in mathematics in 1925, graduating magna cum laude. Five years later she returned to the University and completed a master’s degree in chemistry. At Walla Walla University she taught home economics and then chemistry until 1952 when the family moved to California. Always pursuing educational goals, Mrs. Kretschmar spent five summers doing additional graduate work at UCLA (Berkeley) and the University of Oregon, while teaching organic chemistry at La Sierra College (now La Sierra University).

Her son, Elder Merlin Kretschmar states, “When I remember my childhood home, I recall nearly every evening having one or more organic chemistry students around our dining room table with Mom voluntarily spending long hours helping them understand difficult classroom material. She really cared about her students, about us, and about God.” Her daughter Joyce Reiswig states, “My mother, Luella, was a superb teacher. Her enthusiasm for life was contagious.”

Mrs. Kretschmar died in 1994. This scholarship has been established by her family in memory of her dedication and love in helping students achieve their goals.

“Her children [and her students] rise up and call her blessed.” –Proverbs


H. Lloyd Leno Memorial Music Scholarship

For more than 40 years Lloyd Leno played an important role in the Walla Walla University music program. As a WWU student, Lloyd was active in the music program from 1944 to 1948. In 1960 he joined the WWU faculty to direct the college band and teach wind instruments. Later in life Lloyd returned to WWU with various musical groups to perform on campus.

During his 25-year tenure, Lloyd established the annual college-sponsored North Pacific Union Conference academy music festival, led a student brass choir on three separate tours to Europe, and served as chair of the Lyceum Committee. He also became a spokesman for musicians concerned about changes in church music and wrote a four-part series on the subject in 1976 for the Review and Herald.

Lloyd completed a doctorate while a WWU faculty member. His dissertation was regarded as a major breakthrough in understanding how the lips function in brass instrument performance.

After learning that Lloyd was struggling with a life-threatening disease, several of his friends and former students began raising funds to establish an endowed scholarship in his honor. This scholarship is awarded each year to a brass player. Lloyd passed away in July 1998 at the age of 72.

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”–John 15:15


Lewiston/Clarkston Scholarship

What would happen if every church sponsored a student for college?

In the mid-’80s declining enrollments placed significant financial stress on the college. Dr. and Mrs. George Thompson, of Clarkston, Wash., decided to do something about it. They set up a scholarship to help students in their area.

It was their hope that the scholarship would serve as a model for other churches to do the same. As Mrs. Thompson pointed out, Mormon school systems are highly subsidized, yet financing Adventist education rests primarily upon the parents. Most Adventist parents have tuition costs from elementary school through college. “When these parents finish they usually breathe a sigh of relief that they survived,” said Mrs. Thompson, a former teacher.

As a young medical student, Dr. Thompson had to put his studies on hold for financial reasons. Since that time the Thompsons supported education at all levels. “We live in a plain house, have plain furniture, and lead plain lives because we feel student education is more important than fancy things,” said Mrs. Thompson.

The income from the Lewiston/Clarkston Scholarship gives financial assistance to students from the Lewiston-Clarkston area. Others are invited to contribute to the scholarship and/or begin other scholarships like it in their own churches.

In 1997 Dr. and Mrs. Thompson were killed in a single-car automobile accident. Their children established the George and Lola Thompson Memorial Scholarship in their honor.

“The churches in different localities should feel that a solemn responsibility rests upon them to train youth and educate talent to engage in missionary work.”–Testimonies Vol. 6, pg. 213


Romulo and Mercedes Lozano Scholarship

The Romulo and Mercedes Lozano Scholarship was established by Elias Lozano in honor of his parents, who wanted their son to have an education.

Growing up in Colombia, Elias Lozano knew that his parents, especially his mother, wanted him to have a college education in the United States. “Education was a big part of our home,” he says. So in 1984 when Jon A. Cole, civil engineering professor at Walla Walla University, came to visit Antillean College in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where Elias was attending, he was inspired to come to Walla Walla and study engineering.

He credits WWU teachers, including Carlton Cross, Robert Woods, and Gordon Hare, with helping him to excel in his classes. He graduated in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and went on to complete a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Washington State University. He remembers that Gordon Hare took the time to attend his WSU graduation. Over the last 19 years, he has worked in the Silicon Valley in all areas of product development for chips and circuit design. He has had his own company and has been part of helping many other businesses start in the valley.

“Some of my best days were spent at Walla Walla, even though I needed to spend most of my time studying and working to pay my bills,” he says. To help other students financially and to honor his parents’ sacrifice, Elias created the Romulo and Mercedes Lozano Scholarship, which assists engineering students who are from Latin America.


Mary E. Marker Memorial Theology Scholarship

Mary Bowden Marker was born in Leadville, Colo., in 1901. Her father was a gold miner in an area that was once thought to be one of the richest square miles in the world. Her mother was a courageous, high-spirited woman who raised her children with a strong work ethic and love of education.

Mary married her childhood sweetheart, Dewey Marker, in 1922. They moved to Greely, Colo., where Mary completed a bachelor of arts degree and Dewey a master of arts degree. After graduation Mary taught commerce in Greely before moving to Phoenix, Ariz., in 1934.

Mary was very active not only in the business community in Phoenix, but also in charity. She contributed much of her life to the Order of the Eastern Star. From 1975 to 1980 Mary was the licensed administrator of the Order of the Eastern Star Retirement Home which she helped to establish.

Mary and Dewey never had children of their own. However, they supported education through scholarships and funding for worthy students at the high school in Phoenix where Dewey taught until his retirement. Mary became a certified public accountant and maintained her own business until her retirement. She died in 1995.

This scholarship was established by Mary’s estate and will be awarded to theology students. Scholarships benefitting theology students have also been established in the names of her sisters, Louise Bowden Allen and Alice I. Bowden.

Mary desired to continuously aid in the education of young people. Although she never attended WWU, she developed an interest in the WWU School of Theology through Ione Allen Brunt, Louise Bowden Allen’s niece.

“The training which makes men happiest in themselves also makes them most serviceable to others.”–John Ruskin


Roy and Lois Dorland Martin Memorial English Scholarship

Roy Martin was determined to continue his education. His parents were unable to send him to an Adventist academy or college so he moved to town to attend the local high school. He soon found a job driving a school bus, which required him to rise early to transport the younger pupils before driving himself to school. After completing high school he hitchhiked with his brother to Los Angeles on a freight train to search for work. It was there that he got his start in the construction business.

When World War II began he completed medical cadet training. He purchased a farm in Medford, Ore., believing he would be less likely to be drafted if he were farming. After the war, Roy sold his farm and returned to work in construction, specializing in lathe and plaster work.

While living in Medford, Roy met Lois Elizabeth Dorland, an English teacher who had previously taught at Yakima Valley Academy. Lois received a bachelor of arts degree with a major in English from WWU in 1926 and served as secretary of the Associated Students of Walla Walla University during her senior year. She also received a master’s degree from Stanford University in 1935.

Two years after their wedding, Roy and Lois moved to Talent, Ore. Soon after, Lois began having trouble with her voice. Unable to continue teaching, she decided to return to school to study library science. She eventually became the county librarian for the area public schools.

During their retirement the Martins traveled extensively. They made several trips to Europe, the Orient, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Lois passed away in 1984 at the age of 79. Roy passed away in 1993 at the age of 94.

The Roy and Lois Dorland Martin Memorial English Scholarship was established by Ada Mae Martin who was married to Roy from 1985 until his death in 1993. The scholarship is awarded to English majors.

“Our aspirations are our possibilities.”–Robert Browning


Sukhdev Mathaudhu Engineering Scholarship

Sukhdev Mathaudhu considered Walla Walla University a “wonderful home away from home.” Born in India in 1946, Sukhdev came to WWU at the age of 19, and received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1970. Using the experience he gained working at several engineering firms, Sukhdev began his own firm, Mathaudhu Engineering, Inc., in 1983. He became esteemed in his field and garnered many awards including the highest distinction in his field (Fellow Status) by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers. Sukhdev was also one of six WWU alumni to design the Chan Shun Pavilion.

A 20-year resident of Riverside, Calif., Sukhdev was married to Veena and was the father of two sons, Suveen ’98 and Suneel. He counted among his hobbies photography and hiking and was active in the Corona Seventh-day Adventist Church as the assistant head deacon. He was also a member of the building committee of the Southeastern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Sukhdev passed away in 2001 at the age of 55.

The Sukhdev Mathaudhu Engineering Scholarship is awarded to mechanical engineering students.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” –Aristotle


Warren Matheson Memorial Christian Service Scholarship

Warren Matheson learned at an early age how to work hard and endure hardship. He was born on Jan. 6, 1918, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His father died while he and his older sister were quite small. His mother worked while Warren and his sister were cared for by their grandmother.

Warren left high school during the Great Depression to work. He was a delivery boy, flour mill flunky, and a “grease monkey” at a service station. Eventually he became a Certified Master Mechanic.

During World War II Warren served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corp., and got his first taste of teaching as an instructor in the Corp. After the war he returned to high school for his diploma and then attended Canadian Junior College.

Warren married Hazel Kay, a registered nurse from Stettler, Alberta, Canada, in 1947. Soon after, they moved to La Sierra College (now La Sierra University) where he finished a degree in secondary education and theology. He continued his education at WWU, earning a master’s degree in education.

During the next 31 years, the Mathesons lived in various locations throughout the United States, Canada, and India while Warren worked as a teacher, school administrator, and pastor. From 1978 until his retirement in 1984 he served as a pastor in several small churches in British Columbia.

Warren, who died in 1992, enjoyed working with young people, encouraging them to do their best, to overcome obstacles, and to give others a helping hand.

This scholarship benefits junior and senior education or medical arts students who have served a year as a Christian Service Volunteer.

“The measure of a man is not the number of his servants but in the number of people whom he serves.” –Paul D. Moody


Matiko Theology Award

Reuben Matiko ’41 believes that books are not only our greatest teachers, but they are essential to ministers. However, he realizes that personal libraries are expensive. So he has designated the Matiko Theology Award to be used to supplement the minister’s professional libraries.

Matiko is a physician living in Victoria, British Columbia. He completed a premedical program at Walla Walla University and then went to Loma Linda University to finish his studies. He is a member of the LLU board of trustees and the board of counselors.

In 1989 Pacific Press published a collection of Matiko’s poems centered around the theme of giving. His book will be used by colleges and universities as a gift to donors.

The Matiko Theology Award, established in 1973, provides recipients with a gift certificate to the Adventist Book Center. Seniors can use this gift certificate to purchase reference books before leaving for the seminary or pastoring.

Recipients must be senior ministerial candidates with a good academic record and high potential for ministry.

“It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.”–William Ellery Channing


Harden M McConnell and Alvin L. Kwiram Chemistry Award

The Harden M. McConnell and Alvin L. Kwiram Chemistry Award commemorates the professional relationship and friendship shared by WWU alum Alvin Kwiram and his mentor, Professor Harden M. McConnell, the Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. Kwiram, a 1958 WWU graduate with dual degrees in chemistry and physics, carried out his doctoral studies with McConnell at the California Institute of Technology.

McConnell was recognized early in his career for his penetrating insights and fundamental applications of quantum mechanics to the study of molecular structure and dynamics. He was a leading figure in developing the theoretical and experimental basis for both nuclear magnetic resonance and electron spin resonance studies. These methods have since become the mainstays of all molecular structure studies for small molecules as well as large macromolecules and biomolecular complexes. McConnell is the winner of numerous national and international awards including the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize, the Pauling Medal, and many others. He is a long-standing member of the National Academy of Sciences.

After completing doctoral studies, Kwiram remained at Caltech for an additional year as the Alfred A. Noyes Fellow, a special Caltech award. Kwiram initiated a new research program which led to the development of a new field of endeavor which he would eventually name Optical Detection of Magnetic Resonance. Kwiram initially took a postdoctoral position in the Department of Physics at Stanford in 1963 and joined the Chemistry faculty at Harvard University in 1964. In 1970 he moved to the University of Washington. He subsequently chaired the Department of Chemistry and has since served as Vice Provost, Senior Vice Provost and Vice Provost for Research in the central administration. Aware of Kwiram’s connections with WWU, McConnell chose to support scholarships at WWU with funds from a charitable foundation he established to support research and the careers of young scientists interested in chemistry, physics, and the biological sciences.

“It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.” -Elbert Hubbard


Messengers/Loewen Scholarship

The Messengers quartet hums softly, the lights dim, and Mike Loewen walks to the podium. The scene took place countless times across the world. For 21 years Loewen, former Walla Walla University admissions officer and dean of men, organized residence hall residents into a quartet that traveled and sang for surrounding churches.

As singing ambassadors, the Messengers traveled throughout the Northwest frequently, reaching more than three-quarters of the Adventist churches. Each summer they went on an eight-week tour, visiting every camp meeting in the North Pacific Union Conference. The quartet sang in New Orleans for the 1985 General Conference session and appeared in an “Amazing Facts” video in North Carolina. Another time, they sang with the King’s Heralds and toured with H.M.S. Richards, Sr. They traveled to Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii and sang at the 1982 youth festival in Finland.

In 1987 after more than two decades of performing and more than 200,000 miles of road and countless concerts, the group retired with their founder. “The Messengers served as a medium to show what Walla Walla University is all about,” says Loewen.

This scholarship was established with donations primarily from the 60 young men and women who sang with Loewen and who wanted to see the spirit of their group perpetuated.

“The goals of Christian education are still as important to young people as they used to be.” –Mike Loewen


Jack Evan Miles Memorial Health Science Scholarship

Jack Evan Miles ’75, born Nov. 12, 1952, graduated from San Fernando Valley Academy and came to Walla Walla University because of its reputation for excellence in engineering education. He was interested in meteorology, but somewhere along the way was drawn to health, science, and nutrition.

Miles was a freethinker who excelled in math and science. He was fun-loving and always sociable. He reveled in the great outdoors and had a fine mind for business and hard work, as evidenced by his Multnomah County employment and his own roofing business, which he ran for eight years. He grew up believing people were here on this earth to benefit their fellow man and leave the world a better place than they found it.

His mother, Helen L. Miles, established this scholarship because of her son’s love for WWU. Miles was killed in a motorcycle accident while on his way to work in Portland, Ore., in November 1988. He had recently visited WWU and friends in the vicinity. His goal was to return to live in Walla Walla. His mother believes that he would have wanted his money to be used to benefit and train responsible students to carry on his dreams.

The Jack Evan Miles Memorial Health Science Scholarship is awarded to health science students.

“We are here not to get all we can out of life for ourselves, but to try to make the lives of others happier.”–William Osler

 


R.S. Michel Endowment for Entrepreneurship

This scholarship is established to honor the legacy of Raymond and Vera Michel to benefit students in the Business department.

After graduating from WWC, Mr. Michel earned a master of divinity degree from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. in 1946. He subsequently served as a pastor in the Pacific Northwest until 1952. Vera graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from WWC in 1929. The went on to found the United Medical Laboratories (UML) in 1953 in Portland, Ore. This was the first large-scale clinical laboratory testing company that served a national and international clientele, arguable launched what was to become a multi-billion-dollar industry. After nearly two decades of development and 1,500 employees, many of whom were WWC alumni, the company was sold in 1972.

 


Joseph and Beth Murray Scholarship for Resident Assistants

Joseph W. Murray was born in the mining town of Gem, Idaho, in 1903. Both of his parents died when he was very young. During high school he worked 32 hours a week in a silver mine, ran a transfer business on the side, and still had time to letter in volleyball and basketball and do very well academically.

At age 32 he married Beth A. Devereaux. Mrs. Murray was born in Kingston, Idaho, in 1917. One of five children, she worked from an early age in a boarding house kitchen. Her grandparents were pioneer Seventh-day Adventists, but her father left the church as a young man. He died in 1928 when Mrs. Murray was only 12. The Murrays were baptized into the Adventist Church in 1946 and 1947. With Christian education now a priority, they moved from Idaho to Pasco, Wash., so their children, Carol att. ’55-56 and Don ’64 and ’70, could attend church school.

Mr. Murray worked at many different jobs during his lifetime. Mrs. Murray was an office receptionist for a doctor in Pasco for nearly 25 years. The 53 years that the Murrays were married were punctuated by a strong sense of God, family, hard work, and service. Their relationship was seen by many as an example of what marriage should be.

In 1964 the Murrays were traveling to visit their son for Christmas. They happened to be on the John Day River bridge when it collapsed into the Columbia River. Narrowly escaping death, Mr. Murray was credited with saving more than 20 lives as he ran ahead to alert on-coming traffic.

They spent their final years in College Place where they were hospital volunteers. Mrs. Murray died in 1988 and Mr. Murray died in 1992.

This scholarship is awarded to male and female resident assistants.

“Their gift is not out of their abundance of wealth, but out of the abundance of their love.” –Don Murray


Llewellyn and Vivian Nixon Scholarship

It all began when a neighbor invited her to go to Sabbath school in a little rickety truck. When 12-year-old Vivian was baptized along with her mother she had little idea just how much that Lewiston, Idaho, church would change her life. It was there that she met her husband and met a Bible teacher who convinced her to attend Walla Walla University.

“Without the standard that the church puts on education, I wouldn’t have been able to go to college,” says Vivian Nixon ’44, a retired educator.

She started teaching in Everett, Wash. Her career extended to private and public schools, and spanned both the elementary and secondary levels. She is noted for her work in curriculum planning and for writing an information booklet for parents of kindergarten students.

Mr. Nixon attended Adventist schools all his life. He began at the WWU normal school, took pre-dietetics and nutrition at Pacific Union College and later studied at Loma Linda University. From 1941 to 1945 he was a staff sergeant in charge of foods in the armed services. He later established and managed a bakery for La Sierra College (now La Sierra University), and taught classes in baking and cake decorating.

The Nixons are retired and live in Riverside, Calif. Mr. Nixon still enjoys baking, cake decorating, and raising citrus fruits. Mrs. Nixon enjoys art, sewing, landscaping, and storytelling. Both say their hobby is their two grandsons, Jeffrey and Timothy.

“All education should be Christ-centered if you want to be happy and successful—otherwise it will be of little value.”–Vivian Nixon


Daniel A. Ochs Memorial Scholarship

 Daniel A. Ochs ’20 came to Walla Walla University in 1909 directly out of elementary school. He took two years out during college to teach church school in a German community in Canada and serve as an evangelist in the Upper Columbia Conference. After college he founded Upper Columbia Academy and acted as its principal. He was also principal of Glendale, Lodi, and Mountain View Academies. He received a master’s degree in international relations from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., in 1934.

Ochs served in the General Conference Youth Department as an associate and later served as president of the Northern New England, East Pennsylvania, and Columbia Union Conferences.

He is the author of two books, Climbing Upward and Life’s Realities. He co-authored The Past and Presidents with his wife, Grace.

Ochs was born to Russian emigrants of German descent in 1890 and died after his 101st birthday in 1991. Most of his retirement was spent in St. Helena, Calif.

“Dan loved Walla Walla University and he loved young people,” said his wife. Upon his death the WWU alumni magazine, Westwind, said of him, “He leaves a legacy of service to the church and its educational system.”

The Daniel A. Ochs Memorial Scholarship is awarded to theology students.

“The whole aim and objective of the department of theology shall constantly be to prepare young men to preach the word.”–School Bulletin 1901


Dr. and Mrs. Howard Osborne Mexican-American Scholarship

Howard I. Osborne was born in 1921 in Cassills, Alberta, Canada. His family later moved to California where Howard graduated from Lodi Academy in 1941. He attended Pacific Union College and received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1954. After receiving a medical degree from Loma Linda University in 1958, Howard worked in family practice in Portland, Ore., until his retirement in 1987.

Monta C. Osborne was born to Mexican parents in 1927 in Oakland, Calif. She was adopted in 1931 by an American father and a Mexican mother. Monta also attended Lodi Academy and graduated in 1946. She married Howard the same year. Monta received a degree in nursing from Mt. Hood College in 1980. Howard and Monta had eight children.

Monta encouraged Howard to return to PUC after eight years away from school. After the first year was over, Howard remarked that the program was too hard on the family and suggested that he quit the school. Monta replied, “We can’t stop now. We have one year done and only six more to go.”

The Osbornes have always been dedicated to family, often welcoming other children into their home. The children were given the opportunity to further their education at Adventist schools as long as they desired.

This scholarship is dedicated to providing a Christian education for Mexicans, in honor of Monta’s heritage.

“What is virtue? It is to hold yourself to your fullest development as a person and as a responsible member of the human community.” –Arthur Dobrin


Doreen Paulson-Evans Memorial Scholarship

Doreen Paulson-Evans ’67 first worked with young people during her summers as a camp counselor at Big Lake Youth Camp in Sisters, Ore. During that time she graduated from Milo Academy and then attended Walla Walla University, graduating with a degree in secretarial science.

Doreen began her life-long career of working for the Adventist Church while pursuing her interest in children’s Sabbath school. She married Chris Evans in 1970 and in 1981 they adopted a newborn girl and named her Cherise. This happy event guided Doreen to the Cradle Roll division of the Camarillo SDA Church where Doreen taught for the next 13 years.

While at the Camarillo Church, Doreen developed a number of Sabbath school programs and conducted workshops around the Pacific Union Conference. She eventually created a manual titled “Bring Them to Jesus” that contained a full year of weekly programs and supporting materials for Cradle Roll leaders.

This scholarship was established by Mary Paulson-Lauda, Doreen’s mother, after Doreen’s death in August 1995. The scholarship is awarded to education majors.

“Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”–Matthew 25:40


Yvonne Pickett Memorial Recruiting Scholarship

In addition to motherhood and her career, Yvonne Pickett was an active community volunteer. She was especially involved in politics, working with the National Federation of Republican Women on the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

Soon after her husband passed away, her son died as a result of childhood arthritis. Seeking solace after the loss of her family, Pickett returned to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the church she was raised in. There she became friends with an individual familiar with WWU.

Pickett, grateful for the financial assistance her son received at a public college, decided she would like to help other young people achieve a college education. As a result of her association with her newfound friends and her church, Pickett established this scholarship to benefit students attending their first year at Walla Walla University.

“People give to worthwhile programs, not needy institutions. The cause must catch the eye, warm the heart, and stir the mind." --Harold J. Seymour


Piper-Johanson Scholarship

Lloyd and Fern Piper’s parents both encouraged them and each of their siblings to strive for a college education. Fern graduated from Walla Walla University in 1955 with a degree in nursing. Lloyd attended WWU from 1951-55.

“We wish to remove, to a degree, the financial obstacle that some may experience in their desire to obtain a college education. We believe that anyone who wants to have a college education ought to be given the opportunity,” say Lloyd and Fern. “A college education is not the end of the educational journey. It is a preface, an introduction for many chapters that will unfold of a story that each individual will write.”

The Pipers are retired and reside in Portland, Ore. In 1996 they established this scholarship to encourage others to seek higher education in a Christian environment.

“God’s word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” –Psalms 119:105


Robert L. Reynolds Scholarship for Excellence in History

When Robert Reynolds came to WWU in 1968 to assume the role of president, the school was facing a financial crisis. According to Bold Venture: A History of Walla

Walla College, “[Robert] had just arrived on campus after driving across the country on icy roads, and he was suffering from a bad back. He called a crisis meeting in his living room, where he had to lie on a couch. After hearing the gloomy reports, he rose up on an elbow, obviously in pain, and said, ‘The worst thing you can do when you’re down is start to cut things. I didn’t come here to cut anything. I came to see this school develop and expand and get bigger.’” The new president’s visionary perspective led WWU during a period of tremendous growth. Known for his inclusive leadership style, Robert served WWU for eight years.

Born in Webster, Mass., in 1917, Robert graduated from Atlantic Union College in 1941 with a history major and received a master’s degree in history from Boston University in 1949. He served as a dean at Shenandoah Valley Academy and later at Atlantic Union College. He served several administrative posts at Pacific Union College before returning to Atlantic Union College in 1959 to serve as president. After his WWU service, Robert served as the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists field secretary for government relations and subsequently the executive secretary of the General Conference Board of Higher Education.  He received his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1970 and went on to retire in 1985.

Robert passed away in August 2002 in Amherst, N.H.

The Robert L. Reynolds Scholarship for Excellence in History is available to thesis-track history majors who demonstrate academic excellence.

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision.”–Theodore Hesburgh


Robert Monti Reynolds Physical Education Scholarship

Robert Monti Reyonlds, 1925-2005, enjoyed his boyhood years in Walla Walla. He graduated from Walla Walla High School and served in the Navy during World War II. After an honorable discharge in April of 1946, he married Patricia Saxby and they both attended Walla Walla College, graduating in 1949. After studying for a master’s degree, Bob returned to instruct in the WWC Physical Education Department. He was called to Union College in Lincoln, Neb., to begin a physical education major and taught there nine years. In 1961, the family moved to Pacific Union College in Angwin, Calif., where Bob served as chair of the Health and Physical Education Department. He received his Ph.D from the University of Oregon in 1965, and retired as a professor emeritus in 1990, after teaching college students for 40 years.

Serving as an area coordinator in Pathfinders was a privilege. Bob enthusiastically worked to make a positive difference in the lives of youth for 44 years. He was honored by the American Red Cross for over 50 years of volunteer service in various capacities.

An optimistic outlook, contagious enthusiasm, love of life, cheerful whistle and service to God, country and his fellow man exemplified Bob’s life.

His family gratefully acknowledges the generous gift made to Walla Walla College by a valued boyhood friend, Gene Soper, and his wife, Betty. It initiates the scholarship to be awarded to a physical education major in Bob’s memory.

“For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, he writes—not that you won or lost—but how you played the game.” —Grantland Rice “Alumunus Football”


Donald W. Rigby Biology Award

Donald Rigby ’56 was an important part of Walla Walla University for more than 30 years, serving as biology professor and dean of graduate studies and earning a reputation as a demanding but concerned educator and friend.

Rigby served as chair of the biology department for many years. Under his leadership the department enjoyed unprecedented growth.

One colleague described him as the “finest teacher at Walla Walla University.” Rigby was considered a leading candidate for the positions of academic dean and president of the college, but he consistently chose to work in the classroom. He received a Teacher of the Year award and was the Honored Faculty member at Alumni Homecoming in 1989. He also received a Burlington Northern teaching award. In 1993 the Life Sciences Complex was renamed in his honor.

After graduating from La Sierra College (now La Sierra University) in 1950, Rigby served as a laboratory technician in the Army. In 1956 he received a master’s degree in biology from WWU and then began graduate studies at the University of Arizona. In 1958 he began teaching biology at WWU. In 1964 he became chair of the department, a post he held for 12 years. In 1967 he received a doctoral degree from Loma Linda University and returned to WWU to chair the department a second time. Rigby stayed at WWU until his retirement in 1992.

A former student began the Biology Student Grant Fund in 1985. In 1987 the department, in consultation with the original donor, renamed the scholarship in Rigby’s honor.

This scholarship is awarded to junior biology majors to assist with tuition at the Rosario Beach Marine Station.

“A teacher’s real legacy is his students.”–Donald Rigby


Donnie Rigby Endowed Drama Award

Donnie (Thompson) Rigby worked at Walla Walla University from 1959 until she retired in 1992, serving in a variety of capacities including professor of communication, speech and drama, chair of the Communications Department, and chair of a newly formed master planning committee.

She most enjoyed spearheading the university’s drama program, the first of its kind on any Adventist campus. She believed drama encouraged students’ confidence, expanded their worldviews, and engaged the community in larger discussions. Beginning in 1961, Rigby produced more than 100 productions. She also established a drama minor, and oversaw the 1971 transformation of Village Hall into a performance venue. In 2004, the university’s Black Box Theater was dedicated as The Donnie Rigby Stage. Each year, The Donnie Rigby Award is given for outstanding theater performances at Walla Walla University.

Rigby was recognized as Teacher of the Year in 1973 and received a Zapara Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities in 1988. She is remembered for being “well-read, articulate and just plain fun.” She was a gifted orator, and enjoyed performing, both on stage and in casual conversation.

She graduated from La Sierra College (now La Sierra University) in 1952 with a major in speech. She earned a master’s degree in speech therapy from the University of Redlands in 1965, and curated her own post-grad drama studies with courses from 12 different national and international universities.

Rigby passed away on October 23, 2021, and she is survived by her husband, Donald Rigby ’56, WWU professor emeritus, one daughter, and a sister.

Following her retirement from Walla Walla University, the Communications Drama Award was changed to the Donnie Rigby Endowed Drama Award by vote of the Communications Department faculty to recognize the significant contributions she made during her time as a faculty member.

Recipients of the award are selected by faculty in the Communications and Languages Department to recognize student achievement in drama.


Thomas C. Rowsell Memorial Scholarship

Thomas Rowsell ’75 was born in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1953. He spent much of his youth overseas, beginning at age 8 when he accompanied his family on a mission appointment, first to Burma, then to Pakistan and Indonesia. After graduating from Far Eastern Academy in Singapore in 1971, Thomas returned to the United States to attend Walla Walla University where he served as president of his senior class and graduated with a major in chemistry.

Thomas spent a year teaching science and math, and serving as assistant dean of boys at Gem State Academy before entering Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1976. He graduated in 1979 and stayed to complete his internship at the Loma Linda University Medical Center where he was chosen as Intern of the Year in 1981. Thomas worked as an emergency physician in the Loma Linda area until 1983. He completed his residencies in family practice and emergency medicine at Florida Hospital. Thomas returned to the Loma Linda area in the late 1980s to complete a doctorate in clinical psychology while working as an emergency physician. He died in the fall of 1989.

“Tom cherished the memory of his years at WWU … He would have received personal pleasure in helping those pursuing scientific studies, especially chemistry,” recall his parents, Heath ’50 and Reba Rowsell att.

This scholarship is awarded to upper-division students majoring in chemistry, biology, or physics.

“The world is blessed most by men who do things, and not by those who merely talk about them.” –James Oliver


Gayle L. Saxby Memorial Scholarship

Gayle Lucille Saxby was born in 1964 in Sacramento, Calif., and moved to Helena, Mont., at the age of five. She attended school there and graduated from Mt. Ellis Academy in Bozeman, Mont., in 1982. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English, cum laude, from Walla Walla University in 1986 and a Master of Divinity degree from Andrews University in 1989.

As a student, Gayle served as vice-president and chaplain for her class and was involved in drama productions. She also served as a Christian Service Volunteer in Greece and later became director of the CSV program at WWU. Her interests included music, drama, reading, writing, and working with young people. She traveled extensively, visiting Austria, Canada, Egypt, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia. She was an advocate for equality for women and was committed to the active participation of women in church ministry.

Gayle’s professional contributions encompassed pastoral ministry at the North Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church in Claremont, Calif.; teaching English, biblical literature, and communication at Loma Linda Academy; and teaching at Loma Linda University as an assistant professor of religion before taking study leave for a doctorate in religion and biblical literature at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.

Gayle died in 1995 in an accident while traveling on the Greek islands of Samos. This scholarship was founded by her parents, Doyle ’49 and Lorelei ’49 Saxby of College Place, Wash., and is awarded to female students majoring in theology.

“Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”–John 4:13-14


Lilah Schlotthauer Risinger Memorial Scholarships

Lilah Schlotthauer Risinger ’23, was the first chairperson of the mathematics department at Walla Walla University. It was under her leadership that the department officially formed in 1934. Before this time teachers from other departments taught the mathematics classes required for graduation. Risinger served as the department chair from 1934 to 1940 and again from 1961 to 1963.

Risinger was an inspiration to her students and colleagues and was a greatly loved member of the WWU family. She was quite active in the development and politics of WWU. It is said that none of her students ever left the school without having had dinner at her house at least once. She retired in 1968.

Risinger created one scholarship, the Schlotthauer Math Scholarship, in 1977, stipulating that it be awarded to senior mathematics majors looking forward to a promising career in mathematics. A second scholarship, the Lilah Risinger Math Scholarship, was established by a gift from her estate. In 1986 Risinger died at the age of 87.

“Some men see things as they are and say ‘why?’; I dream things that never were, and say ‘why not?”’ –George Bernard Shaw


Eleanor Schofield Memorial Teachers Scholarship

At the 1991 Homecoming Banquet Jerry Brass, director of Trust Services for the Washington Conference, presented Walla Walla University president Niels-Erik Andreasen with a $529,662 gift from the estate of Fred Schofield. The gift was in memory of Schofield’s wife, Eleanor, who died in October 1969. Eleanor was an educator and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Her husband never visited WWU and was not a Seventh-day Adventist church member. “But he wanted to make sure that his money went to Christian education,” said Brass, who helped Schofield carry out his wishes. Schofield learned about the value of Christian education through Eleanor and her example. He always felt that she had learned Christian virtues through WWU.

Those who knew Schofield said he was saving money for the fund for a long time. “In his living room there was an old crate with an ancient lamp on it and an old TV,” says Paul Turpel, former vice president for development. “When I visited he would pull a lawn chair out of the closet for me. At each visit, Schofield would be wearing the same thing, a pair of blue pants with at least 50 holes, patched and re-patched. I offered repeatedly to buy him a new pair, but he kept saying, ‘We’ve got to save it for Walla Walla, Paul’.” Schofield died in 1991.

This endowment, now valued at over $800,000, awards yearly scholarships to  elementary and secondary education students.

"The slightest breeze that ever blew one slender grass has wavered.  The smallest life I ever knew some other life has flavored.” –Angela Morgan


Cecil W. Shankel Memorial Chemistry Scholarship

They were courting. It was almost sundown and the chemistry classroom was empty. The two students bent closer and closer and finally kissed. The moment was ideal except for one thing. Chemistry professor Cecil W. Shankel ’24 had just witnessed the whole event and would relate the incident, much to their surprise, in their class the next morning.

Although he was considered a tough educator and often wore a serious expression on his face, Cecil W. Shankel was always playing jokes. Those who knew him knew he loved helping students and was committed to Christian education. Alumni remember him for his fairness in both grades and discipline.

Shankel worked for more than 40 years in Adventist education. He graduated from Walla Walla University with a major in chemistry, started teaching at Canadian Union College (now Canadian University College) and then became president of Oshawa Missionary College (now Kingsway College) in Ontario, Canada. He came to WWU in 1947 and taught until his retirement in 1970. All four of his children graduated from WWU, and they all took chemistry from him.

Shankel’s children established this scholarship in his honor after he died in 1980. The scholarship has been awarded since 1982.

The Cecil W. Shankel Memorial Chemistry Scholarship is awarded to chemistry students.

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” –Unknown


Donald and Virginia Sherwood Memorial Scholarship

Donald and Virginia Sherwood, longtime residents of Walla Walla, were noted for their leadership in community affairs. Their contributions include development of the downtown core area, construction of a new public library, and generous support of higher education.

Donald Sherwood was a prominent Walla Walla businessman, investor, publisher, and philanthropist. His desire for achievement was evident from an early age. By age 12 he was driving a horse-drawn hay rig, working as a soda “jerk,” shoveling sidewalks for neighbors, and delivering milk. After completing high school at the age of 17 he enrolled at Whitman College, a choice that would mark the beginning of a long relationship with the institution. He completed a bachelor of science degree with a major in science and economics in 1922.

Donald was recruited by the Standard Oil Company in 1922 and remained with the company until 1929, when he began developing his talents in money management and insurance, securities, and properties sales. He founded Sherwood & Roberts Inc., and served as its president from 1932-69. His many affiliations include service as chairman of the American Sign & Indicator Corp., director of Pacific Power & Light Co., and Pacific Northwest Bell, trustee of Whitman College, and publisher of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

Virginia Kelly Sherwood excelled in her studies, beginning her senior year of high school at the age of 15. She completed a bachelor’s degree with a major in history at the University of Washington in 1928.

In December of 1929 Virginia and Donald were married. Virginia spent the early years of her marriage caring for their two children, Eugene and Claire. As family demands lessened she was able to indulge her love of travel. She and Donald traveled more than one million miles by air and thousands of miles by train and ship to the far corners of the world.

The Donald and Virginia Sherwood Memorial Scholarship, established by a grant from the Sherwood Trust, is awarded to students who come from Walla Walla County.

“If you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach the people.” –Kuang Chung


Herbert Z. and Jessie K. Shiroma Scholarship Endowment

Herbert Z. and Jessie K. Shiroma owned a successful concession stand near a movie theatre on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. However, when the two committed their lives to Jesus and joined the Adventist church, they felt called to let go of their business in order to keep the Sabbath in a way they felt God had designed it. Starting from scratch, they launched into new careers in real-estate and set the goal of giving their children a Christian education. But in 1952, Herbert was called to rest. For all those looking on it would have seemed that Jessie was very alone with the difficult challenge of raising the five kids on her own. But God had an incredible plan for the family. 

Newly widowed, Jessie prayed earnestly for God's guidance in providing her children with a Christian education. In 1956, feeling that He had answered her prayers, she sacrificed all, gathered her five children, left balmy, sandy Hawaii and headed for College Place-the Timbuktu of Eastern Washington. She thought that if she lived near good Adventist schools, it would be easier to support her kids through their education. 

The Walla Walla Valley's bone-chilling winter wind would have sent most scrambling back to Hawaii, but Jessie hung in there, holding not only her own family together, but opening her heart and home to many other students from Hawaii and Southeast Asia. Jessie cooked foods that were familiar to them to ease their homesickness. She became a second mother to many-a home away from home. 

Four of her five children eventually graduated from Walla Walla College and three of them met their spouses there. Four of her grandchildren also attended or graduated from the institution. Her bold move and sacrifice in 1956 influenced generations to come. 

Although Jessie now rests, awaiting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, we, her family, have established the Herbert Z. and Jessie K. Shiroma Scholarship Endowment. This scholarship honors her hard work, bravery and determination in overcoming hardship, providing a Christian education for her children, and helping to ease the homesickness of students who were far from home.
 


Carolyn Stevens Shultz Scholarship

Carolyn Stevens Shultz began teaching English at Walla Walla University in 1970 and retired in 2005. She had previously taught at San Gabriel Academy in California and at Auburn Adventist Academy.

Over the years, in addition to College Writing and Research Writing, she taught general education literature classes, survey of English and American Literature, Shakespeare, Victorian Literature, a course in British novels, and Major Author classes in Charles Dickens and George Eliot.

She established the summer course Shakespeare at Ashland in 1993 and taught it for 12 years. In the late 1970s she initiated the Development of the English Novel class, which later became Major British Novels.

In addition, Shultz was actively involved in the General Studies Honors Program, beginning in 1979. She co-taught the freshman honors course Western Thought, first with Lorne Glaim and then with Terrel Gottschall, both of the history department, for 26 years. She was honors committee chair for one term and honors secretary for many years.

Shultz served English majors as Pegasus Club sponsor and Gadfly advisor at various times and was the long-time advisor for English minors.

In 1990 Shultz received a WWU Zapara Award for teaching excellence. She also received a teaching award at San Gabriel Academy in 1969. She graduated from Pacific Union College in 1965, then earned a master’s degree at La Sierra College in 1966, and a PhD at the University of Washington in 1977.

When she retired in 2005, her family and friends surprised her by establishing the Carolyn Shultz Shakespeare at Ashland Scholarship in her honor. Proceeds from the scholarship help fund class expenses for one student each summer.

“Only where love and need are one, and the work is play for mortal stakes, is the deed ever really done For Heaven and the future’s sakes.”–Robert Frost on choosing a vocation


Dan Shultz Music Scholarship

Dan Shultz, chair of the music department and professor of music at Walla Walla University, came to Walla Walla in 1979 following 11 years at Union College, where he had directed the band for 11 years and chaired the Fine Arts Department in his final three years there. In addition to chairing the department at WWU, he directed the band during his first four years, and taught conducting, music education, and woodwinds, and Introduction to Music, and World Music classes, areas of great interest to him.

A founder of the International Adventist Musicians Association, he served as its president for seven years before becoming publications editor. He also served as a member of the Walla Walla Symphony Board of Directors for 11 years and was president of the board from 1985 to 1988.

Additionally, Shultz was a consultant for two editions of the primary textbook used nationally in secondary music methods classes and for two music appreciation textbooks; wrote five compositions for band, two of which were official bicentennial activities; and authored a book on music at Walla Walla, The Great Tradition, which was released during the school’s centennial in 1992. He also authored the centennial book for the Walla Walla Symphony, which was released in 2006, and is presently completing two books on the history of music in the Adventist church.

While at Union College Shultz received an award for creative teaching in 1973 and was listed as an Outstanding Educator in America in 1974. He received the Zapara Excellence in Teaching Award at WWU in 1996.

Shultz graduated from Atlantic Union College in 1962 with a bacherlor’s degree in Music Education and from Andrews University with a master’s degree in music in 1967. An oboist, he studied with John Holmes of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Florian Mueller of the Chicago Symphony.

Shultz retired in 2000 after a record 21 years as music chair at WWU. This scholarship was established through gifts from family, friends, colleagues, and former students in honor of his years of service to higher education in music.  This scholarship is awarded to a music major.

"The educator has the life of a young human being in his or her hands.  He can shape it, stimulate it, depress or discourage it.  A good teacher will put stars in student's eyes and in their souls and get them excited about the act of life, living and communicating with other human beings." -Morton Gould


Solomon Scholarship

The Solomon Scholarship was established in recognition of King Solomon’s wisdom and talent as a designer and builder, poet and philosopher, and renaissance man of his time, by the family of Noble and Elsie Curtis.

The Curtis’ son, Gary, established the endowment in honor of his father’s support of his education at Walla Walla University. As an engineering student under Professor Cross, Gary’s personal interests on campus ranged beyond engineering to studying voice, participating in many student activities, and editing the Mountain Ash. Gary’s freshman composition professor, John Waller, attempted to convince Gary to change his major to English. Instead Gary utilized his broad curriculum base to make him a more effective engineer. He found that his English courses gave him the skills to write clear technical reports which have proven to be the logical step to upper management positions that many engineers would like to achieve.

This scholarship was established to help bridge the gap between technology and the humanities by encouraging and rewarding students who make efforts to expand their range.

The Solomon Scholarship is open to upper division students in any field who demonstrate a breadth of interest and talent in all disciplines.

“In the heart of a man of understanding wisdom quietly rests.”–Proverbs 14:33


Gene and Betty Soper Music Scholarship

Gene and Betty Soper are lifelong residents of the Walla Walla Valley. Betty is the daughter of wheat farmers and Gene is the son of a harness maker. They were raised during the Great Depression so they know the value of a dollar and the advantages of education.

The Sopers owned and operated a retail leather goods business in downtown Walla Walla that had been in existence for 113 years. They are now retired and live near Walla Walla
College.

Gene and Betty have underscored the meaning of the word ecumenical. Neither is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist faith and neither attended WWU. However, both accept the Christian faith—Gene as a Presbyterian and Betty as a Catholic.

Gene is a former member of the board of directors of the Walla Walla Symphony and also served three years as board president. During this service he saw the contributions WWU made to the symphony financially and through faculty and student participation in the orchestra. Both Gene and Betty, lovers of fine music, have chosen to honor these contributions by providing scholarships for WWU music majors. Their desire to help with scholarships at a Christian-oriented college made WWU a natural choice.

This scholarship is dedicated to the music department and is awarded to select music majors.

“The mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” –Isaiah 55:12


Robert L. Spies Memorial Scholarship

In 1980 Robert L. Spies ’59 became the first Walla Walla University vice president for development. Building on the program previously headed by development director Robert Koorenny, Spies advocated fund-raising seminars, gift clubs, and systematic donations to the annual fund. Colleagues say he understood the consequences of spiraling costs and disappearing funds for student aid. Spies believed his own life and deepest values were affected by his studies at WWU and he wanted to make that same privilege financially available to all who wanted to come.

Spies was born in 1935 in Chicago, Ill. He graduated from Walla Walla High School in 1954 and from WWU in 1959. In 1957 he married Noreen Elijah. After graduation he worked for General Services Administration at a Sand Point Naval Station and as a chemist in Seattle. Later he was vice president of marketing for the Cowman-Campbell Paint Company, also in Seattle. From 1980 to 1982 Spies worked as the vice president for development. Gift funds to the college increased dramatically during his brief tenure with the college. 

In 1982 Spies died while still in office. “We were permitted to have Bob for too short a time,” said one colleague. “But in that time we came to know, respect, and love him. Bob was a mover. His professional work and caring friendship were living expressions of his deep commitment to his Lord and Savior.”

Spies envisioned a strong endowment program for student scholarships. This scholarship was established to benefit students who maintain a work program.

“I want to relieve the pressure on the tuition dollar.” –Robert Spies


Glenn Spring Scholarship

Glenn Spring taught for 36 years at Walla Walla University, the longest tenure for any music teacher since the founding of the school. When he retired in 2001, he enjoyed a reputation as an inspiring theory and composition teacher, an insightful teacher and performer in strings, and creative director of numerous string ensembles.

Spring represented the college in the community in an outstanding way, serving as concertmaster of the local symphony for 12 years and as a member of the viola section for an even longer period. He also forged relationships in the community that fostered a better understanding of the mission of the school and the Adventist church. 

During his time at WWU, Spring received numerous commissions and awards for composing music, an activity he has continued in retirement. A published composer, he has been recognized many times by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers for the quality and performance frequency of his music.  Furthermore, he was primary author of Musical Form and Analysis, a textbook published in 1995, the first new book on the subject in 30 years.

In June 1991, Spring was honored by the college for both his teaching and composing when he received the Burlington Northern Foundation Award. While the list of his accomplishments is impressive, Spring is best known as a wonderfully compassionate and empathetic human being, a thoughtful friend who possesses uncommon insights about life and human interaction.

The Glenn Spring Scholarship is made possible through the generosity of students, colleagues, and friends and is awarded to a student pursuing music composition and/or string studies.

“Music must serve a purpose, it must be part of something larger than itself, a part of humanity.” –Pablo Casals


Joshep L. Stubblefield Memorial Scholarship

Joseph Stubblefield and his wife, Anna, were among the early pioneers who settled in the Blue Mountain region. The couple emigrated from Missouri to Umatilla County, Ore., in the early 1860s. Fourteen years after moving west, Anna died. In November of 1902, at the age of 78, Joseph died leaving approximately $130,000 to his attorney to establish a trust. 

The purpose of the trust was to establish and maintain a home for orphans and elderly indigent widows living in Washington and Oregon. An orphanage operated in Walla Walla from 1904 to 1932 until drought and depression brought the trust to bankruptcy. In 1934, in order to save the trust from total liquidation, the trustees offered personal guarantees totaling thousands of dollars. Eventually a better economy resulting from World War II enabled the trust to pay off its debts. 

In 1947 the trust again began to benefit a children’s home in Walla Walla until 1984 when skyrocketing costs forced the home to close. It was at that time that a trustee, H. H. Hayner, petitioned the Superior Court to allow the Stubblefield Trust to support other various charitable and educational organizations, as well as elderly indigent widows and orphans. Today the trust is managed by Minnick & Hayner, attorneys at law, in Walla Walla.

The endowed fund established in 1995, awards scholarships to students from Eastern Oregon and Washington. 

“Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.”–Erich Fromm


Stephen and Margaret Tan Engineering/Computer Scholarship

Stephen Tan and Margaret Chan arrived in College Place, Wash., in 1946 to attend Walla Walla College. They had traveled from Singapore following the end of World War II to pursue their dream of furthering their education and becoming doctors.

Stephen was born in Sarawak, Malaysia, on July 5, 1924, the fifth of six children. With the death of his father at a very young age, the family moved to Singapore where his Bible worker mother raised her children in the Seventh-day Adventist community. Money was always short, but love and faith abounded.

Margaret's family situation was vastly different. Born on Aug. 21, 1926, to a wealthy lawyer and his homemaker wife, Margaret was the fourth child of seven. She was accustomed to a life of affluence, until the war struck and the Japanese occupation of Singapore began, forcing the family to leave their comfortable home for more humble lodging. This new home happened to be across the street from a Seventh­-day Adventist church, and as the Methodist church they normally attended was too far away, Margaret and her sisters began attending the Adventist church instead.

With the arrival of the six pretty Chan girls, Stephen and the other young men quickly took notice. It didn't take long for Stephen to set his eyes on Margaret, and to inform her when she was 16 and he was 18 that he would marry her one day, and that he would be a doctor. The rest, as they say, is history.

On June 14, 1949, Stephen and Margaret were married at Walla Walla College. A year later Stephen became deathly ill with TB meningitis. He survived but was left partially paralyzed and incapacitated for a full year. Margaret managed to keep up with her studies while caring for Stephen, graduating from college, and being accepted in Loma Linda School of Medicine. Stephen followed her into medical school a year later.

Upon completion of their studies and internship, the couple returned to Singapore in 1958 to serve. They had three children-Darryl, Randy and Cheryl-who followed their footsteps through Walla Walla College and Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Along with their medical practice, they were active in leadership in the Balestier Seventh-day Adventist Church, where their influence continues. Stephen succumbed to liver cancer in 2002 at age 77, and Margaret passed away in 2015 at age 88. They were both living near their children in Gig Harbor, Wash., at the time of their deaths.

Through the lean years of college and medical school and Stephen's illness, the bills and challenges often seemed insurmountable. However, God provided, and Stephen and Margaret never forgot those along the way who gave them friendship and financial aid. They chose to honor those blessings by helping numerous others through the years attain their own dreams.

In December 2015, Bernard Pham and Alwin Vyhmeister established what became the Stephen and Margaret Tan Engineering/Computer Science Endowment Fund. Bernard Pham expressed interest in naming the fund for the family who served as his benefactors when he was a Walla Walla University student. With this fund, Bernard Pham and Alwin Vyhmeister honor Stephen, att., and Margaret Tan, ’51, for their generosity and support for others.


George and Lola Thompson Memorial Scholarship

George and Lola Thompson had a long history of commitment to Seventh-day Adventist education beginning with their own education in Adventist church schools. George graduated from Yakima Valley Academy (now Upper Columbia Academy) in 1932. He met Lola at Pacific Union College when they were students. Lola graduated with a normal degree in 1934 and George completed a bachelor’s degree in 1936.

After their college graduation, both Lola and George taught in church schools. In 1938 George accepted a position teaching biology at La Sierra College (now La Sierra University). During his time at La Sierra he earned a master’s degree in zoology from the University of Redlands. In 1944 the couple accepted a mission appointment at the Adventist school in Medellin, Colombia. They returned in 1947 so George could study medicine. He earned his medical degree from the College of Medical Evangelists (now Loma Linda University) in 1953. 

George and Lola’s son, Alden, remembers his parent’s commitment and sacrifice to send him and his older sister to church school while their father attended medical school. The Thompson children who attended WWU are Georgene Bond att., Alden ’65, Albert ’74, and Lorene Berger ’78.

George and Lola moved to Clarkston, Wash., in 1953 where George established a medical practice. For many years George taught band one afternoon each week at Beacon Adventist School. For several years he also taught biology during his lunch hours. The Thompsons played an integral role in establishing an endowed scholarship at WWU funded by residents of Clarkston, Wash., and Lewiston, Idaho. George retired from his medical practice in 1986. In their retirement years, George and Lola remained active in church and community life.

They died on July 3, 1997, in a single-car automobile accident. This scholarship was established in 1999 by George and Lola’s children. At the funeral the following verse indicated the hope which had guided their lives.

"Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagle, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."-Isaiah 40:31


E.E and Jane Breese-Trefz Christian Service Volunteer Scholarship

E.E. “Mannie” and Jane Breese-Trefz believe that since the Lord has blessed them, they should strive to be a blessing to others. They created this scholarship because they believe in Christian education and they know that many students need assistance to attain it. They ask the student who receives the scholarship to “make the best of your education at Walla Walla University, and remember that as the Lord blesses you, use your education to be a blessing to others.”

Before their retirement Mr. and Mrs. Trefz owned a wholesale bakery which produced dinner rolls for wholesalers. Their most famous item was the Butter-Gems dinner roll which was distributed by the Oroweat Baking Company. 

The Trefz also owned and operated several convalescent hospitals. In 1982 they sold one of their interests and disbursed the profit among three or four colleges and four academies. Since several members of their family attended and/or taught at WWU they were glad to make this school one of their choices for contribution.

Through the years the Trefz have actively supported missionaries both with financing and by traveling to locations abroad. They have been Seventh-day Adventists all their lives, and all four of their children attended Adventist colleges. E.E. died in 1997. Jane lives in College Place, Wash.

The Trefz Scholarship assists students returning to WWU after participating in the Christian Service Volunteer program.

“Serving the needs of others is the light that brightens each day.” –Douglas M. Lawson


Clarence O. Trubey Music Scholarship

Clarence Trubey directed the band at Walla Walla University from 1948 to 1955.  In those seven years he developed and conducted a popular group that had a loyal following.  Although known for his showmanship and entertaining concerts, he always programmed at least one number of musical substance.

In his first year at WWU, Trubey successfully led a campaign to purchase uniforms for the band. Three years later, the group, under his direction, performed a concert as part of the college’s 60th anniversary celebration. It was during this program that George W. Miller, director of the first college band in 1892, was honored and a “passing of the baton” symbolically took place. The 1952 yearbook referred to the band as “one of the college’s best musical features.”  

Trubey was a euphonium player who loved bands. While serving as principal at Shafter Academy in Southern California, he started a small group that became quite successful. Glendale Academy noticed his work and hired him as their band director. The growth and success of his group there led to an invitation from La Sierra College in 1944 to direct their band. Four years later, he came to WWU.   

In addition to his band work, Trubey also established the first music education degree program at WWU. This scholarship honoring him was established primarily through the efforts of Sydney Stewart, one of the first graduates from that program, who would subsequently teach music for 36 years. It provides assistance for students who, like Trubey and Stewart, love the sound of a band and aspire to work with young people. 

“The aim and final reason of all music is the glory of God. Where this is not observed, there is no real music, but only devilish hubbub." –Johann Sebastian Bach


Marilyn K. (Dammrose) Van Stee Memorial Nursing Scholarship

Marilyn Kay (Dammrose) Van Stee had a passion for nursing. She grew up on a dairy farm in Walla Walla with 3 sisters including her twin sister Meredith. Marilyn attended Walla Walla Valley Academy, and entered Walla Walla College in the fall of 1965 with her sister.  They both joined the nursing program, graduating in 1969.  Nursing was the only profession that she had ever considered.  Later she would be followed by an older sister and 6 nieces and nephews pursuing nursing as well.

In her 37 year career Marilyn worked in many nursing areas including Med/Surg, Cardiac Care and Rehabilitation units in hospitals.  She also worked in nursing homes and in 1987 began working in home health which became a favorite for her.  She spent 19 years as a home health nurse in Ridgecrest, California.  She made thousands of home visits to the surrounding small desert towns.  She was able to adapt her nursing skills to any environment including homes with dirt floors, no running water, absent windows or doors, and no heat or cooling.  She was known for going out of her way to help the many elderly housebound patients she cared for.  She would pick up their medicines for them when they couldn’t get to the pharmacy 30 miles away and bring them groceries, clothing and even furniture if needed.  It was common to go to the store with her and have patients families from years ago come up to her and talk with her.  Marilyn also enjoyed training student nurses who would ride with her for clinical rotations periodically.  She had an immense love of the profession.

Marilyn was first diagnosed with breast cancer in May of 1996 and underwent treatment at that time. In 2002 the disease recurred and was spread throughout her body.  She continued to work full time over the next 4 years as she went through many rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and surgeries.  She passed away from the disease in September 2006, having retired from home health nursing only 2 months earlier. Marilyn was active with the American Cancer Society Relay For Life for many years.  In 2008, the Indian Wells Valley (California) Relay for Life was named the Marilyn Van Stee Memorial Relay for Life in her honor.

Establishment of a memorial scholarship in her name was done to allow students with a passion for nursing to pursue their studies with less financial hardship at the University she loved.

 


Eva Stratton Vliet and Jess Vliet Scholarship

As parents Eva and Arno “Shorty” Fluhr, and Jess and Vivian Vliet found it difficult to fund their children’s Christian education. On several occasions it seemed clear that both families would have to transfer the children into public schools. However, with help from family members and faculty donations their children were able to continue in Christian schools.

While studying to be a nurse at Paradise Valley Hospital, Eva’s meager finances prevented her from acquiring a proper nurse’s uniform. Embarrassed by her shabby shoes and without enough money for a three-cent stamp to write home for help, she asked to be assigned to night duties. 

After several years of nursing she and her husband adopted a daughter. Believing it was important for her to be at home with their daughter, Eva stopped working as a nurse. Later in her life she returned to nursing until retirement.

Jess and Vivian Vliet began their marriage in the depth of the Depression. Providing a Christian education was no small task with six children to raise. Jess was a hard worker and accepted any employment that was available from operating a bakery to logging so that his children could receive a Christian education.

After the loss of both of their companions Jess and Eva were joined in marriage. Both determined to do what they could to help others less fortunate. They have established this scholarship to help students fulfill their dream of receiving a Christian education.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” –Frederick Douglass

 


Eldon and Barbara Vories Student Missions Endowment

Eldon and Barbara Vories were dedicated, second-generation, Seventh-day Adventists. Eldon, the son of an SDA Evangelist, chose an automotive career leading to owning Eldon Vories Motors, originating at a Chevron service station across from the WWC campus. Barbara, who was born in Walla Walla, did the company bookkeeping and homemaking as they raised their four kids: Don, Dennis, Steve, and Susan. Ultimately, Eldon moved the dealership to the corner of 9th and Poplar in Walla Walla where he continued providing his own unique evangelism to local customers and global associates. Eldon often expressed his belief that God had grown his dealership faster than any other in the valley because he ceased business over the Sabbath, the busiest car buying day of the week. 

Dennis and Susan graduated from WWC. After Eldon died on October 5, 1994, Barbara volunteered regularly at WWU and was inspired as she listened to the stories of dedicated students who gave unselfishly of their lives to help others globally. Accordingly, when Barbara died on October 6, 2020, her estate generously shared some of Eldon and Barbara's blessings as an endowment for WWU Student Missions.

 


Stanley E. Walker Music Scholarship

In 1935 Stanley Walker arrived on the Walla Walla University campus as the new keyboard instructor. Twenty-five years old and a student of two former WWU music teachers, Margaret Holden-Rippey and Blythe Owen, he had started study at the age of 13 and previously taught at Adventist academies in the Portland area.

For the next 24 years he would provide a thread of continuity in music at the college, teaching theory and organ. From the time of his arrival—with his only credential being a reputation as a good organist—to the time of his departure, Walker quietly and tenaciously completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano at Northwestern University. He also had a yearbook dedicated to him and gained recognition as a Fellow in the American Guild of Organists. During the last 14 years he served as chair of the department.

Walker subsequently taught at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts for eight years, serving as chair of the music department, then taught theory and organ at Andrews University in Michigan and at Southern Missionary College (now Southern Adventist University) in Tennessee. He retired to the Loma Linda area in 1978 where he continued to play organ into his eighties.

This scholarship was established in honor of his years of service to higher education in music. The scholarship is awarded to a keyboard music major.

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass."- Psalms 37:5


Walla Walla University Alumni Scholarship

Walla Walla University graduates have supported their alma mater since the first graduation. However, the first formal organization of alumni took place in 1917 with 87 charter members.

Since then, the Alumni Association has seen two major revivals. The first was in 1953 when Merton Searle ’38 became the president of the association and began publication of the Alumni Review (later renamed Westwind). In 1954 the association was incorporated and Thomas R. Thompson ’35 became the first board chairman. Under his leadership the association contributed to the new College Church, its pipe organ, and the Alumni Gymnasium.

In the early 1970s the association had a second revival when WWU began providing both staff and budgetary support. In 1979 WWU president Clifford Sorensen invited Thompson and his wife Helen Ward Thompson ’49 to lead out in this renewal. The two revitalized alumni chapters and led a campaign to build an Alumni Center. In 1981 Havstad Alumni Center was presented as a gift to the college from alumni and has been the focal point of alumni activities since then.

Every year the association awards one or two scholarships to students who have an alumni connection.

“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” – John Howard Payne


Monte G. Wilkins Memorial Scholarship

A “Montana Boy” is what Monte Wilkins considered himself. He was born in Havre, Mont., in 1979 and lived in “Big Sky Country” until 1987 when he and his family moved to Southern California. After finishing eighth grade at Mesa Grande Academy he completed ninth grade during the summer by home study. He attended Mt. Ellis Academy in Bozeman, Mont., for his sophomore through senior years. It was at Mt. Ellis Academy that Monte began to develop his leadership abilities and a keen interest in missions as a result of a mission trip to Belize. Monte was a multi-sport athlete and lover of the outdoors. His primary interests were golf, snow skiing, and backpacking. He graduated from Mt. Ellis Academy in 1997. 

That same year Monte enrolled at WWU as a business major. He and his sister, Marci, provided the leadership for a small worship group on campus. His family was gratified to see him becoming a young man with a genuine love for God and a passion for sharing that love. 

The last summer of Monte’s life was spent at home with his family. His life ended in the crash of Swissair Flight 111 at Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, on his way to study abroad for a year in Collonges, France. His family holds onto memories of his smile, his easy disposition and kind nature. They look forward to the reunion they will have when the trumpet sounds and the dead are raised with imperishable bodies. Then Monte will see the Jesus he loves and hear Him say, “Well done.”

This scholarship was founded by Monte’s parents and is awarded to graduates of Mt. Ellis Academy.

“Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.” –Psalm 116:15


John and Inez Willey Family Scholarship

John and Inez left Ruthven, Iowa, seeking their fortune in the days of homesteading. Montana sounded grand and promising, but Joplin proved to be dry and harsh. The couple trekked to North Dakota and claimed the two home quarters that remain in the family today. The lush, fertile land proved profitable as the years went by. The family grew from Inez and John to include children George, Tom, Genevieve, Marjorie, Billie, and John. 

Of Norwegian and English decent, John portrayed the fine English gentleman throughout his life. No matter how great the need for a part to repair the machinery, a trip to town was preceded by considerable effort. The field dust and dirt would be completely scrubbed away, a white shirt and tie donned, and at least three or four splashes of different colognes applied before traveling the dusty eight miles to Mohall.

Inez loved her growing family. Meals at her round table were an event with lots of food, cousins, and good times. Long, cold winter evenings were spent embroidering, knitting and tatting beautiful pillowcases, stockings, and doilies to make their prairie home prettier.

It was very important to John and Inez that all of their children and grandchildren be a part of the Seventh-day Adventist church. It was also expected that their children would seek higher education. Many of their children attended Seventh-day Adventist colleges including their son, John, whose experiences at WWU led many of his cousins to pursue degrees in those same halls. 

John and Inez left a legacy of strength, grace and dedication. Their grandchildren have established this scholarship fund to honor that legacy. 

The John and Inez Willey Family Scholarship provides scholarships for pre-dietetics and biology majors. 

“The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become.” –Harold Taylor


Dr. Anah Wineberg-Winton Memorial Scholarship

After a long and difficult delivery, Anah Wineberg-Winton was born in 1898 to Johanna Wineberg, a tailoress from Norway. The complications of her birth would leave her legs permanently injured and would influence her decision to choose medicine as a career. 

Anah Wineberg-Winton ’22 conducted pioneering studies with growth hormones and their effect on the body. She also experimented with thyroid doses to increase fertility among older women. Wineberg-Winton was especially interested in the study of female menstruation and menopause—breaking research for a day when many doctors still told women they were “emotionally upset at certain times of the month” and advised them to go home and take a tranquilizer.

Wineberg-Winton attended Columbia Academy and graduated from Walla Walla University in 1922 and from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1929. She married Alex Winton in 1940.

She practiced medicine in Oakland, Calif., for almost 40 years until she had a stroke. Her later years were spent in Vancouver, Wash., with her sister, Helen Wineberg Kendall ’23. Even then she continued to treat friends who came to her home for shots and medication. She died in 1984.

Wineberg-Winton’s sister, Helen, established the Wineberg-Winton Scholarship in 1984 in memory of her sister. The scholarship is awarded to female premedical, engineering, and science majors. 

“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings … nor lose the common touch …yours is the earth and everything that’s in it …”–Rudyard Kipling


Norma R. Youngberg English Scholarship

Through her stories of adventure, trials, and hope, Norma Rhoads Youngberg touched generations of readers. Youngberg, a prolific writer of books, poems, and other works, specialized in literature for young people including several serials in the Junior Guide. 

Youngberg authored Jungle Thorn, the first of more than 40 books she wrote during her lifetime. Others included Fire on the Mountain; Ayesha, Beloved of God; Miracle of the Song; Tiger of Bitter Valley; Miracle in Borneo; Taught by a Tiger; Miracle of the Song; Queen’s Gold; Nyla and the White Crocodile; Singer in the Sand; Story Craft, Vol. 1-3; and Creative Techniques for Christian Writers. 

Some of the books she co-authored include Dixie, Under Sealed Orders and Hymns at Heaven’s Gate. While Youngberg was serving as a Pacific Press board member, editors sent several authors to her with manuscripts that needed rewriting: Under the Blood Banner, Montana Bushwhacker, Alice Princess, Bickie's Thunder Egg, and The Madison Story. She also wrote Cliff Notes Study Guides for several books including Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, an author she was considered an authority on.

Youngberg taught writing at San Jose State University and in seminars around the country. Several of her students became well-known authors, including Louise Vernon, Erna Holyer, Eileen Lantry, Louis Schutter, and Lois Prante Stevens. Because of a connection with the University of Oklahoma, some of the original drafts of her books are kept there. 

Youngberg and her husband, Gustavus Benson Youngberg, raised six children, several of whom served as missionaries. She died in 1985. 

Family members established the scholarship in Youngberg’s memory to support future creative writers. Scholarships are awarded to English majors. 

“Her work, especially her poetry, reflected her positive attitude and love of life.” –Robert Youngberg