Fred and Laura Maucher Memorial Scholarship

The Fred and Laura Maucher Memorial Scholarship does not need a photograph of its donors for a clear picture to emerge about what they were like. It is their legacy that brings them into focus—as loyal Lutherans, successful investors and conscientious stewards of their resources. From their gifts to California Lutheran University, it is easy to see that they also loved and supported Lutheran higher education.

Laura Maucher first contacted CLC in March 1981 after the death of her husband. She was then living in Leisure World in Seal Beach, California. She wanted to sell her home there in order to move to La Serena Retirement Village in Thousand Oaks. With the help of CLC’s Ken Siegele, executive director of California Lutheran Educational Foundation, she accomplished both goals and soon became a neighbor as well as a friend of Cal Lutheran.

After her move to Thousand Oaks, Mrs. Maucher became active in Ascension Lutheran Church. She made friends easily and enjoyed having them visit her in her home. One of the first things her guests would notice was her marvelous needlework displayed throughout her home.

With Ken Siegele as her trustee and with the proceeds of the sale of her home in hand, Mrs. Maucher created the Fred and Laura Maucher Memorial Scholarship. She chose to designate it for premedical and/or pre-seminary students at CLC.

But her gifts did not stop there. After her death in 1987, Mrs. Maucher bequeathed her estate California Lutheran University and Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary in Minnesota in equal shares. Her gift to Cal Lutheran enabled CLU to award generous scholarships to several students every year.

For many years following Mrs. Maucher’s death, CLU received quarterly checks from the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) office, dividends from investments made years earlier by this savvy couple. Their story is a clear demonstration to recipients of the Fred and Laura Maucher Memorial Scholarship of the couple’s Christian stewardship in action.