Robert Embry Memorial Scholarship

Colleagues and friends called Dr. Robert Embry a student’s professor. By that they meant that he was one who challenged students with rigorous standards but was also there to aid, encourage and mentor them. That description indeed was a tribute to Bob Embry as is this scholarship.

Dr. Embry was a member of the CLU School of Management faculty for 10 years—from 1984 until a few months before his death in March 1994. He served as assistant professor of business and as director of CLU’s Center for Management Development. He had also served as chair of the Ventura County Civil Service Commission and was an active member, along with his family, of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

Cancer claimed Bob’s life at the age of 58, but only after a valiant fight on his part. Bob had the reputation of going about his duties with a quiet determination. It was that determination that kept him at his teaching in the classroom despite his serious illness. His students knew that he cared about their success both as scholars and as human beings.

In memory of Bob’s service and contributions, his colleagues started the fund which established the Robert Embry Memorial Scholarship. It was their decision that the scholarship would carry, for its recipients, duties and responsibilities reflective of Bob’s own approach to his role as a teacher. Future recipients would be business majors and would be expected to serve as tutors and peer mentors to their fellow students.

But wait . . . there’s more. In the spring of 1999, five years after Bob’s death, his wife Donna made a large gift to the scholarship fund that put it in the endowed category. The endowed Robert Embry Memorial Scholarship is now awarded annually from the earnings gleaned from investment, using the criteria established earlier.