共同祝福

Elayne and 保罗 Lohr experienced great blessing from their family’s egg business, which they helped grow from a small farm to a 60,000 -鸟牧场. That blessing has flowed down in their own family, and in thirty-five years of impact at CUI w在这里 their generosity has helped build the campus and support students through scholarships.

“The Lohrs have been generous with the blessings God has given them, and have a longstanding commitment and love for our programs,蒂姆·耶格说, Executive Vice President of University Advancement.

保罗, 现在死去, graduated from 肯考迪娅 River Forest (now 肯考迪娅 University Chicago), then moved to Anaheim and was serving as a school teacher at Zion Lutheran when he met Elayne Winger. Elayne’s father owned a chicken farm and citrus groves in Anaheim.

“Anaheim was a nice little town at that time,” Elayne, who is now 92, remembers. “它有一所高中, and then Disney came in and Anaheim grew by leaps and bounds because Disney bought so much of the citrus land.”

That turned out to be a blessing, because many citrus groves had been hit hard by disease. Elayne’s family transitioned from orange farming to egg farming, and 保罗 married into the family—and the business.

“资金非常紧张，”Elayne说. “It was during the Depression era so you didn’t have any grandiose ideas about what you were going to do.”

Elayne helped out, going down the rows of cages with a cart to pick up eggs. 在那些日子, eggs went straight from the ranch to the store, 所以所有的洗涤, grading and candling to look for imperfections was done on their property.

We’ve seen the university through all its phases. It’s changed a lot in forty years, and it’s been wonderful watching its growth.

In the 1950s, the family moved the chicken ranch out near Riverside. 很快就增加到六万只左右. By this time, Elayne was raising their two children, Kristen and Stuart. She also began volunteering for philanthropic work.

“I joined the Assistance League which helps children by supplying clothing and food,” she says. “It’s a wonderful organization and I met a lot of new people through it.”

In the late 1970s, the Lohrs learned of a new Lutheran college taking root in Irvine. Elayne’s sister Eunice had married Herb Grimm, whose brother Ray Grimm was a founding trustee of the Christ College Irvine Foundation, 现在是欧文康考迪亚大学的一部分.

“We would get together on weekends and have dinner, and we always heard from Ray and his wife Helen what was going on with 肯考迪娅,伊莱恩说.

That was the beginning of our involvement with the Pacesetters support group, 从那以后我们就一直是会员.

Herb and Eunice’s sons (Elayne and 保罗’s nephews) Rod and Bob and their families also became generous supporters of 肯考迪娅. 一天和洛尔一家共进晚餐后, Rod and Bob asked 保罗 and Elayne to consider supporting 肯考迪娅 in an even more significant way. “We’ve seen the university through all its phases. It’s changed a lot in forty years, and it’s been wonderful watching its growth. We are appreciative of the leadership they’ve had through the years, very fine men.”

多年来, the Lohrs have supported a number of building programs and continue to support student scholarships.

“Getting young people educated to go into various forms of ministry, whether as a DCE or school teacher or in pastoral leadership—that was near and dear to Mom and Dad’s heart,他们的儿子斯图尔特说. “One thing that provided them a lot of joy is when they financially supported a student, then went down and met the student on campus. 爸爸说过很多次了.”

The ranch continued to prosper, and amazingly, 保罗 ran it himself with one hired hand. 这降低了劳动力成本, as did increased automation which sent eggs down a conveyor belt and into a work room. 保罗也喜欢音乐, and for thirty years served as the volunteer choir director at their church, 以马内利路德教会在河滨.

“这是一个非常成功的合唱团. 他就是喜欢，”伊莱恩说.

They created a family legacy of commitment to their faith and to generosity, 并激励其他人参与进来.

给 to 肯考迪娅 has always been important to them, to “bring up the next generation to carry on in the ministry in these local churches,斯图亚特说。. “Mom and Dad wanted to give and never wanted a lot of credit for it. They just wanted to know in their hearts they were doing something good.”

Elayne’s grandson Todd and granddaughter Summer graduated from CUI, as did several other relatives. Jaeger says 保罗 and Elayne went beyond giving and often attended 朋友 of 肯考迪娅 events—galas, special dinners and concerts—and introduced friends to 肯考迪娅’s mission as well.

“They created a family legacy of commitment to their faith and to generosity, 并激励其他人参与进来,耶格说。.

Elayne Lohr passed into eternal rest in June 2019, 跟随她的丈夫保罗, 谁在2014年12月去世了.