William H. and Irene M. Gardiner Scholarship

The Gardiner Scholarship was established by three people committed to CLU—William “Bill” and Irene Gardiner, along with Irene’s older sister, Hermine Mathews.

Bill Gardiner was an outstanding businessman who worked as property manager for Ellsworth M. Statler of the Statler Hilton firm, managing commercial buildings in San Diego. Bill was married to Irene, who at one time also worked for Statler Hilton. Bill and Irene met when he was in Navy flight school in Louisiana and were married there in 1944. They had a long and happy life together, raising two daughters—Mary and Loretta. Irene had the reputation of being “homemaker par excellence,” and the whole family was active in their church.

Hermine Mathews, Irene’s older sister, was the wife of San Diego attorney Ben Mathews and the aunt of CLU’s third president, Mark Mathews. Hermine had already created three scholarships to honor family members, indicating at that time that the three scholarships would be the extent of her philanthropic gifts to CLU’s scholarship program. Yet, shortly before her death in 2001, she created the Gardiner Scholarship as a tribute to the lives of Bill and Irene as well as in recognition of CLU as a value-centered university. Hermine wanted to memorialize the Gardiners’ exemplary Christian marriage for the benefit of CLU students pursuing a business career.

In establishing the criteria for the William H. and Irene M. Gardiner Scholarship, Hermine wanted the scholarship to be awarded to an upper-division business major in CLU’s School of Management who also has a Christian belief and perspective on life.