Harold E. Bachtold Memorial Scholarship

There are many different ways to express grief at the loss of a loved one. For some, like Dr. Louise Bachtold, it was through giving to CLC. For this had been the institution where her husband of 58 years had served on the board of regents in the late ‘60s and where their daughter had been a student. Harold Bachtold, or “Hal” as he was best known, was a good businessman who worked for Dean Witter Reynolds for 29 years before retiring in 1987 as vice president.

Hal was a good husband and father who guarded carefully his family’s ties to the Lutheran church. He enjoyed ten years in retirement before he died in 1997. Within six months of his death, Louise had initiated a generous gift of stock to CLU to endow a scholarship. More importantly, for her it memorialized Hal’s name in CLU’s record books.

That gift was the beginning of Louise’s relationship with CLU, and this award is as much about her as it is about Hal. For18 years, she had worked as a professor of human development at UC Davis. Her relationship with CLU began with that first gift and blossomed in the years that followed. Her subsequent gifts built the scholarship fund into a secure award for the School of Management.

The Harold E. Bachtold Memorial Scholarship mirrors Hal’s own profession and is designed for a business major, preferably from Northern California where they lived. Having been in the university setting for so many years, Louise wanted and cherished the opportunity to correspond with those who were fortunate enough to receive her husband’s scholarship.