Ethel Ruth Beyer Scholarship

Condensing more than 100 years of a person’s life into a brief summary is difficult if not impossible. In the case of the Ethel Ruth Beyer Scholarship, the woman who established it was close to being a human landmark in the history of California Lutheran University. Part of its history even before the institution came into being, she remained involved with the University until her last breath. Ethel was unique in every meaning of the word.

She was literally Cal Lutheran’s first “first lady,” having been hired by the first college president as his assistant. She was the first and only person to receive an honorary baccalaureate degree from CLU in 1997. And she was interviewed and photographed more frequently than any other CLU employee, both for her loyalty and her striking appearance.

In addition, Ethel’s history of philanthropy to CLU is the longest of any donor on record. She gave whenever asked—to the CLU annual fund, to capital campaigns, to the scholarship she started that bears her name. And because she put CLU in her estate plan, she was a proud member of the Orville Dahl Society at the University.

Ethel began what became 40 years of employment at CLC following her retirement from a 27-year stint in the oil industry. When she celebrated her 100th birthday, not one but five Lutheran pastors made a point of attending.

For Ethel, the primary focus of life was her church, Holy Trinity, and her college, CLC/CLU. She was a Lutheran through and through. And so, it was perhaps to be expected that when it came to Ethel’s planning for her own legacy, the two institutions took precedence over everything else. She established the endowed Ethel Ruth Beyer Scholarship in 1972.

In her long and dedicated life, Ethel had many interests, but she always tried to put her support where it mattered. She shared everything she had and everything she was with CLU. When she died in 2012, Ethel bequeathed her whole estate, $829,000, to a fund for a new center for the arts on campus. She truly deserved her title as CLU’s “first lady.”