Vern and Janet Swanson Scholarship

Vern and Janet Swanson were true life partners—in their marriage, as parents of their three sons, and in their faith. Vern had earned a degree in physics from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Janet was a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Swansons, who met as graduate students at Kansas State University, were fortunate to enjoy 50 years of marriage together, living and working in California.

With his background in physics, Vern became an employee of Atomics International in Simi Hills where he worked with nuclear reactors. Janet served as CLU Convocator from 1976 to 1979 and again from 1993 to 1994. She also enjoyed working with the Lutheran Maritime Ministry. The family worshiped at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Canoga Park for 25 years before moving to Oxnard, where they became active members of Our Saviour’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Swansons had a high regard for education. They had three children, all boys, whom they encouraged in their studies. Wayne, their oldest son, graduated from CLU in 1979 and went on to study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, becoming a Lutheran pastor. Their middle son Ken majored in computer science, earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UCLA. Brian, the youngest, majored in geology and earned degrees at California State University, Northridge.

It was while Vern and Janet were updating their trust late in 2005 that they decided to include arrangements for scholarships at the three different colleges with which they had an affiliation. Because of their involvement with California Lutheran University, they named CLU as one of the three. Sadly, Vern’s death occurred soon after in 2007. Rather than wait for the trust to be activated, Janet decided to go ahead and establish the Vern and Janet Swanson Scholarship.

In determining the criteria for selecting recipients, Janet and her three sons agreed on students who were studying geology, who were of the Christian faith and who maintained a minimum 3.0 grade point average. As Janet wrote in the document that established the scholarship, “This scholarship reflects gratitude to God for a multitude of blessings and the hope that scholarship recipients will recognize the majesty of God as continuing creator of a marvelous and precious world.” The Vern and Janet Swanson Scholarship was first awarded in 2011.