Shirley Denogean Memorial Scholarship

“Love your enemies” may be one of the most challenging commands ever issued, but Ray Denogean learned that it could be done, even if it took five years. In 1991 he lost his wife Shirley in a shocking abduction/murder at a San Gabriel Valley shopping mall. In the middle of a routine shopping trip, Shirley and two other shoppers were kidnapped, robbed of their credit cards and bank cards, then murdered execution-style. Four people were charged with their murders and were later convicted.

Shirley and Ray were in their 50s and had been married just six years when misfortune struck. They were blissfully happy together. Shirley was an astute businesswoman and Ray was a successful salesman. During their short time together Shirley, a lifelong Lutheran, had managed to transform her faith into their faith and to integrate it into their marriage. Church involvement became a given. In fact, it was the incredible support of the church as well as that of family and friends that kept Ray going throughout the criminal trials that followed Shirley’s death.

Five years passed before Ray was ready to discuss what to do with the many memorial gifts that had poured in immediately after the incident. All he wanted was for the money to benefit CLU students, some of whom he and Shirley knew from their church, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Claremont. In designing the Shirley Denogean Memorial Scholarship, Ray asked that it be awarded, whenever possible, to a young woman majoring in business.

To all who knew her, what set Shirley apart was her ability to be an “encourager.” The Shirley Denogean Memorial Scholarship memorializes this quality as it honors a gracious and energetic woman of faith.