Reininga Endowed Music Scholarship

John Reininga and his wife Margaret were retired residents of Santa Barbara and friends of California Lutheran College from the 1960’s. In fact, John, a successful retailer, was nominated and elected to the Board of Regents and served in that capacity from 1970 to 1972. After his death in 1976, Margaret continued to have an interest in the progress of the college. The Reiningas had one son, John Jr., who established a successful real estate company in San Francisco.

Gracious would be the word to describe Margaret Reininga. Even as a widow, she opened her home to guests, maintained an active correspondence in her lovely handwriting and attended concerts in the Santa Barbara community. She was an active member of the Presbyterian Church. In 1985 she made the decision to create a scholarship at Cal Lutheran that would honor both the academic achievements and the musical abilities of CLU students. Preferring to remain anonymous, she named it simply the Endowed Music Scholarship. It was first awarded in 1986.

It was much later that Margaret finally decided to allow her name to be associated with the scholarship. The intent and criteria of the award remained the same, but it became known from 1991 forward as the Reininga Endowed Music Scholarship.

To be eligible to receive the Reininga Endowed Music Scholarship the recipient must be pursuing either an undergraduate or graduate degree in music. An incoming freshman must come from the upper 25 percent of his/her high school class and an ongoing CLU student must carry a minimum of a 3.3 grade point average. When Margaret Reininga stated that she was creating the scholarship “for scholars and musicians,” she meant exactly that. She moved to be near her son in Northern California in 1994, where she passed away in 1996.