Oscar C. and Robert C. Kaitschuk Scholarship

The right pathway for one’s professional life can sometimes be a circuitous route. At least that was Robert Kaitschuk’s experience. Because Bob was born into a family of Lutheran clergy, he thought the ministry was his destiny as well. With that goal in mind, he entered Wittenberg University in Ohio. There he happened to become friends with Rev. Jerry Miller, who later became president of California Lutheran University. After Wittenberg, Bob enrolled in seminary.

Bob had great admiration for family members who had been called into the pastoral ministry—his father Oscar, a brother and an uncle. But he soon came to realize that such was not his calling. He left seminary, entered the insurance industry and later formed his own travel agency in Mission Viejo. He was an astute businessman and also an avid student of politics.

Throughout his life Bob maintained a firm belief in the value of the Lutheran tradition of higher education. When his health began to fail, he evaluated his personal goals as well as his financial assets and made some major decisions. He revised his will and, as a good steward, assigned resources to the various institutions that had contributed to his life. Largely because of his long friendship with Jerry and Margaret Miller, Bob chose to establish an endowed scholarship at California Lutheran University in tribute to the close relationship he had had with his own father. Bob died in 1990.

As a result of Bob’s planning and good stewardship, the Oscar C. and Robert C. Kaitschuk Scholarship is designed for students majoring in either of the two disciplines that were of greatest interest to Bob—political science or pre-seminary studies.