Virginia Slusser: Making a Difference

Not many people outlive their life insurance policies. 100岁的捐赠者维吉尼亚·霍夫曼·斯卢瑟(Virginia Hoffman Slusser)做到了.

“100岁就到期了，”她在伯班克的家中怀疑地说. “I did not know that insurance policies expire!”

直到几个月前，弗吉妮娅一直开着她的车，管理着她在纽波特海滩的出租房产. She was 46 years old when John F. Kennedy was shot; 51 when man first walked on the moon; and 63 when Ronald Reagan was first elected. She shows few signs of slowing down.

“当人们说，‘那是在1960年发生的. That’s a [long time] ago.’ To me it was pretty near recently,” she says. “The ’60s and ’70s were a good time.”

弗吉尼亚最近向康科迪亚·欧文慷慨捐赠了她和丈夫格里于1969年在科罗纳德尔玛建造的一套三层出租房产.

维吉尼亚的礼物将对我们的学生产生巨大的影响.

“格里和我过去常常开车去科罗纳德尔玛玩得很开心，我们在那里有一间小公寓过夜, have nice dinners out and go down to the ocean and all,” Virginia says. “It was wonderful.”

She heard about CUI from her pastor, Rev. Mike Harnack of First Lutheran Church of Burbank. 维吉尼亚参观了校园，并欣赏了圣诞音乐会. “My eyes just popped out,” she says. “我想，这是我见过的最美丽的学校.”

Tim Jaeger, executive vice president for university advancement, 还有一些人与她一起创建了一个慈善生活信托基金.

“She used some of her assets in a creative, wonderful way to significantly impact our students, mission and ministry,” says Jaeger

通过这一切，弗吉尼亚感谢她的许多祝福. 她很感激她意识到康考迪亚，并为她的礼物将使学生在未来几年受益而感到兴奋.

生前信托“太棒了，因为现在我不用担心租金和维护等所有这些,” Virginia says. “我能负担得起把这栋楼捐给大学，这是我一生中的一大成就.”

攒钱买房产是她和格里在财务方面做过的“最聪明的事情”, 当弗吉尼亚决定将她的出租财产捐赠给崔时, the proceeds were put into a living trust. 她说:“效果很好，我本可以更早做这件事。.

“弗吉尼亚的礼物将对我们的学生产生多年的巨大影响，”耶格说. “我能负担得起把这栋楼捐给大学，这是我一生中的一大成就."

Virginia’s Lutheran roots go deep. 她的祖父母在圣路易斯市的康考迪亚神学院做厨师和保管员. Louis in the 1800s. 因为他们住在这片土地上，弗吉尼亚的父亲于1886年出生在神学院的校园里.

On September 3, 1917, Virginia was born in St. Louis. To put her age in perspective, when she was born:
在伍德罗·威尔逊总统的领导下，美国刚刚加入第一次世界大战. ——俄国的布尔什维克革命还没有发生. — Commercial radio did not exist. ——亚利桑那和新墨西哥刚刚加入联邦. 亚伯拉罕·林肯的长子是普尔曼铁路汽车公司的董事长.

1918年春天，当弗吉尼亚还是个婴儿时，她的父母决定去蒙大拿州定居.

这个人说:“我妈妈一定是疯了，竟然要带着一个六个月大的婴儿穿越整个国家, 但他们是在弗吉尼亚认为是富兰克林的汽车上做到的, she says. But first, they drove all the way from St. 路易斯去洛杉矶探亲，这次旅行花了两个半月的时间.

弗吉尼亚回忆说:“那时候的汽车时速不超过35英里。.

Once in California, her mother refused to leave, and so the family settled in Los Angeles and her father, a trained jeweler, got a job in jewelry manufacturing. 年幼的弗吉尼亚和她的姐姐玩纸娃娃和杰克. They rode a big, red street car to the grocery store.

“当我谈到有轨电车时，我想的是，有轨电车去了哪里?” Virginia says.

这家人搬到了罗斯科(现在被称为太阳谷)的五英亩土地上。, where her father built a house which still stands, and started a chicken ranch. 维吉尼亚喜欢编织、钩针编织、做串珠和各种手工.

“我父亲是一名珠宝商，我想我继承了他的一点才华，”她说.

They had no telephone, television or radio, of course.

“我在生活中经历了很多新设备和新事物, but electronics and I today don’t get along at all,” she says, 打趣道:“我昨天在报纸上看到58%的人都在用Facebook. The 42 percent that are not have a life.”

Finding that there was no nearby Lutheran church, 她的父亲在弗吉尼亚八岁左右的时候帮助建立了伯班克第一路德教会. 当临时牧师不能布道时，她的父亲就会宣读布道文.

“他是一个很好的基督徒，他愿意做任何事，”她说.

1938年，21岁的弗吉尼亚被伯班克的一家小公司洛克希德雇佣. There she met a young riveter, Gerry Slusser, 在飞机上为阿米莉亚·埃尔哈特和霍华德·休斯工作的人. 维吉尼亚和格里于1941年结婚，当时该公司正在为战争生产飞机.

“It was all camouflaged for safety purposes,她说，这个设施现在是伯班克机场的一部分.

Not all her life has been easy. 维吉尼亚和格里有一个儿子罗恩，他们在一场车祸中失去了他. Ron was a physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“我认为我生命中最大的快乐就是我的儿子如此聪明和善良,” she says. “罗恩的最后一项工作是从所有的无人飞船上获取信息，并让它们相互交流. Is that what they call ‘progress’?”

To make it even harder, Gerry died six months later. They had been married 68 years.

“I had two years of very difficult times,” Virginia says. “你只需要向仁慈的上帝寻求指引，因为我没有亲戚帮助我.”

至于长寿的建议，维吉尼亚简单地说:“我想吃什么就吃什么. 我偶尔会吃热奶油圣代，而且我喜欢巧克力. I don’t restrict my diet.”

通过这一切，弗吉尼亚感谢她的许多祝福. 她很感激她意识到康考迪亚，并为她的礼物将使学生在未来几年受益而感到兴奋.