Paul L. and Virginia Baumgartner Memorial Scholarship

Paul Baumgartner passed away in May 1969 at age 58. A highly regarded Lutheran pastor, he had served churches in Ohio, California and Arizona. When he died he left behind his wife Virginia and three adult children—Tom, Joyce and Rex, a CLU alumnus.

Immediately after Paul’s death, his brother, Dr. Luther Baumgartner, initiated conversations with CLC regarding a scholarship in Paul’s memory. An announcement went out inviting family and friends to contribute, but responses were not as high as hoped.

Luther was discouraged and subsequently backed away from the scholarship project. It was Paul’s wife Virginia who kept the relationship with Cal Lutheran alive through her gifts and regular contacts. The fund that Luther had started finally became officially endowed in December 1989, 20 years after its beginning. About that same time, Luther put aside his earlier disappointment and renewed his interest and support for the scholarship.

In his life Paul Baumgartner had a strong personal interest in person-to-person ministry as well as family life counseling. He wrote a regular column from that perspective for The Lutheran Standard. When it came time to designate criteria for the scholarship, the family agreed to award it to an upper-division student majoring in sociology and/or psychology. Following Virginia’s death in 2009, her son, Dr. Rex Baumgartner, requested that her name be added to its title. It is now the Paul L. and Virginia Baumgartner Memorial Scholarship and serves a genuine need for CLU students.