Stapel-Van Frank Endowed Scholarship

Some people continue to play “follow the leader” well into adulthood. At least, that’s what Mabel Stapel did, and she wisely chose the right kind of leaders to follow. Mabel lived in Glendale, California, where she was a member of Foothill Lutheran Church. Among her best friends were Bob and Doris Samuelson, who frequently spoke of their relationship with California Lutheran University. When Mabel’s only sister passed away and left a small inheritance to her, Mabel turned to her friends for guidance. Fortunately for CLU, the Samuelsons were there to help.

Frieda Van Frank, Mabel’s younger sister, had been a registered nurse. After she graduated from nursing school in Iowa she began working as a nurse in hospitals in Chicago and Iowa. During World War II she worked at the Veterans Hospital in San Francisco. Married but with no children, Frieda’s husband passed away three years before her own death. In her later years Frieda lived in Montebello in the San Gabriel Valley, close enough to Glendale for her to see her sister Mabel frequently and to celebrate holidays together.

When the Samuelsons suggested that Mabel consider making a gift to CLU with the money Frieda had left to her, they also planted the idea of a scholarship bearing Frieda’s name. That suggestion triggered memories of childhood years when Mabel played the part of teacher and Frieda would play the nurse. Whereas Frieda achieved her childhood dreams and became a nurse, Mabel married an elementary school teacher who left her financially independent when he passed away. However, when Frieda died in 1997, Mabel, then 89, realized it was time for her to make some end-of-life decisions of her own.

A scholarship bearing the two names—Stapel and Van Frank—took shape in Mabel’s mind. With the assistance of CLU adminstrators, the Stapel-Van Frank Endowed Scholarship became a reality in time for Mabel to see it awarded to a deserving student in 1999. Appropriately, the scholarship is designated for a student of the Christian faith who is planning for a career in either teaching or nursing. Although CLU does not have a nursing curriculum, many of those who major in the biological sciences go on to become nurses. Thus, the childhood dreams of Mabel and Frieda continue to be lived out through the scholarship that bears their names.