Storz Foreign Missionary Scholarship

In the annals of every institution are stories of people who have contributed in unusual, and often sacrificial, ways to make that institution successful. This is such a story.

California Lutheran College was incorporated on August 4, 1959. Even though the land on which the college was located had been donated by Mr. Peder Pederson, the college struggled financially in its early years to achieve its goal of becoming an accredited institution of higher education. Many people believed in the effort and in those leading the charge. Among those who hoped for the college’s success were two elderly sisters. They decided that they wanted to use their limited resources to promote the cause of Lutheran higher education in Southern California. While very little information about their personal lives was recorded, their generosity will be felt for many years to come.

The sisters, Minnie and Katie Storz, lived in Woodland, California, an agricultural area northwest of Sacramento. They likely became aware of the new college in Thousand Oaks through their Lutheran pastor. The sisters decided that their goal would be to assist college students not only in getting a good college education but also in preparing them for eventual missionary work. Toward the end of 1967, the sisters sent a letter to CLC’s associate director of development, John Nordberg, informing him of their decision to establish the Storz Foreign Missionary Scholarship. In that letter they pledged $300 per year for an annual scholarship, stating that their ultimate intent was to create a permanently endowed fund that could support the scholarship. At the time, they knew they would need an endowment fund of at least $6,000 to fund the $300 annual award.

Minnie and Katie were already in their later years, but they kept their word. The fund reached its goal of $6,000 in 1970, the year of Katie’s death. Minnie passed away in 1979 and left additional money for the endowment in her will.

Due to the sisters’ great foresight, the Storz Foreign Missionary Scholarship is now available to junior or senior students at CLU who have decided to enter the field of foreign missions of the Lutheran Church. If there is no student qualifying in a given year, then the scholarship may be awarded to a student who is the son or daughter of someone serving as a foreign missionary in the Lutheran Church.