David and Alma Stoeve Scholarship

The David and Alma Stoeve Scholarship file at CLU holds very little information about the Stoeves, but what it does contain is a heartwarming impression of a widow’s love for her husband.

It is important to recall that California Lutheran University’s beginnings were in August 1959 when it was incorporated under the name California Lutheran Educational Foundation (CLEF). The University was not given the name of California Lutheran University until 1986. And so, when the David and Alma Stoeve Scholarship was established in 1960, it was at a time when there were very few guidelines in place for establishing an endowed fund.

There is little information about the scholarship’s two donors in CLU files. But there is a letter that Alma Stoeve wrote to Dr. Orville Dahl (CLC’s first president) in 1960. In that letter she provides what little information there is regarding the occasion and the purpose of this scholarship. Alma lived in Los Angeles and had recently become a widow. She wanted to create something in her husband’s memory. Since Alma’s friend Hattie Englestad had just established a scholarship through CLEF, Alma decided to do the same. Her gift came in two payments that totaling $1,000. That was enough back in 1960 for the scholarship to be permanently endowed.

In her letter to Dr. Dahl Alma expressed her pride in her late husband David by providing details of his background. Dr. David Stoeve was an ordained Lutheran pastor who served as district president of the North Dakota district for more than 25 years. He had also been on the board of regents of Concordia College in Minnesota, serving as board president for several years.

Alma was very proud of her husband’s ministry. For that reason she chose to designate the David and Alma Stoeve Scholarship for the top junior student planning to attend a Lutheran seminary following graduation. The scholarship is to be used during the student’s senior year. Wisely, Mrs. Stoeve established one more requirement—the recipient must be willing to help others obtain their educational goals. That, too, was something she knew her husband would have wanted.