1999-2000: The Year In Review

To Honor and Remember

The following scholarships were established to provide another source of financial assistance to students, and also to honor alumni and friends.

Loren Dickinson Scholarship Dedication to students has been the hallmark of Loren Dickinson’s experience at Walla Walla College. Students could always count on an open door and a receptive listener whether they needed to plan a speech or talk over a spiritual decision.

Dickinson taught at WWC for 38 years and chaired the Department of Communications for 22 years. He received his doctoral degree in speech communication from the University of Denver in 1968.

He served as the first station manager for WWC’s radio station, KGTS, when it signed on as the first FM station in Walla Walla in 1963, and he oversaw the growth of the station for more than 20 years.

Dickinson became the voice of Evensong, and with Melvin K. West established a 35-year tradition that brought a time of spiritual reflection at the close of many Sabbaths on campus.

He dedicated significant energy to fundraising, and represented the college on the Milton Murray Foundation, a worldwide Seventh-day Adventist philanthropic organization. He promoted student scholarships by developing the Josephine Cunnington Edwards Scholarship and by promoting the WWC Faculty Scholarship.

Dickinson was awarded the Burlington Northern Outstanding Faculty Award in 1987, the Alumni Association Faculty Award in 1990, and the Education Club Honored Faculty Award in 1995. He was honored as the WWC Distinguished Faculty lecturer for 1999. The Loren Dickinson Communications Scholarship is awarded to freshman communications students.

L.P. “Jim” and Jane B. Corbett Scholarships London Pierre “Jim” Corbett was born in 1898. His father’s career as a railway trainman forced the Corbett family to transfer frequently, which resulted in Jim attending 14 schools in eight years. The family eventually settled in Walla Walla.

In 1921, Jim boarded a ship headed for Alaska, where he negotiated various jobs moving coal, repairing railroad tracks, and building a bridge. At the end of the summer, Jim had earned the $400 needed for college.

Jim began college at Washington Missionary College (WMC), where he met Jesse Evans, who he would later be married to for 54 years. After one year at WMC, he returned to Walla Walla. His love of reading and writing led him to study English at Walla Walla College. Majoring in English, he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1925.

Jim held a number of jobs throughout the years including working as a radio announcer, hospital administrator, space helmet manufacturer, monkey gland salesman, poet, galley steward, lecturer at UCLA and vice-president of the Sawyer School of Business.

In 1984 Jim married E. Jane Brown. They were together until Jim’s death on October 4, 1999, at the age of 100.

The couple established three scholarships: the L.P. “Jim” Corbett English Scholarship, the L.P. “Jim” Corbett History Scholarship and the L.P. “Jim” and Jane Corbett Student Aid Scholarship.

Dan Shultz Music Scholarship Dan Shultz joined WWC’s Department of Music in 1979 as a professor of music and also chair of the music department. He retired in 2000 after a record 21 years as chair.

Along with his administrative duties, Shultz taught conducting, music education, woodwinds, and directed the band during his first four years at WWC. He also taught introduction to music and world music classes, areas of great interest to him.

A founder of the International Adventist Musicians Association, he served as its president for seven years before becoming publications editor. He also served as a member of the Walla Walla Symphony Board of Directors for 11 years and was board president from 1985 to 1988.

Additionally, Shultz was a consultant for two editions of the primary textbook used nationally in secondary music methods classes and also for two music appreciation textbooks. He wrote five compositions for band, two of which were official bicentennial performances and also wrote the book “The Great Tradition,” a history of music at WWC.

Shultz graduated from Atlantic Union College in 1962 with a bachelor’s of science degree in music education and from Andrews University with a M.Mus. degree in 1967. An oboist, he studied with John Holmes of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Florian Mueller of the Chicago Symphony. He received the Zapara Excellence in Teaching Award at Walla Walla College in 1996.

This scholarship was established in honor of his years of service to music in higher education. The scholarship is awarded to a music major.

Stanley E. Walker Music Scholarship In 1935 Stanley Walker arrived on the Walla Walla College campus as the new keyboard instructor. Twenty-five years old and a student of two former WWC music teachers, Margaret Holden-Rippey and Blythe Owen, he had started study at the age of 13 and previously taught at Adventist academies in the Portland area.

For the next 24 years he would provide a thread of continuity in music at the college, teaching theory and organ. From the time of his arrival‹with his only credential being a reputation as a good organist‹to the time of his departure, Walker quietly and tenaciously completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano at Northwestern University. He also had a yearbook dedicated to him and gained recognition as a Fellow in the American Guild of Organists. During the last 14 years he served as chair of the department.

Walker subsequently taught at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts for eight years, serving as chair of the music department, then taught theory and organ at Andrews University in Michigan and at Southern Missionary College (now Southern Adventist University) in Tennessee. He retired to the Loma Linda area in 1978 where he continued to play organ into his eighties.

This scholarship was established in honor of his years of service to higher education in music. The scholarship is awarded to a keyboard music major.

Alvina Gruzensky-Roberst Memorial Scholarship Alvina Gruzensky was born in Grassy Butte, N.D., in 1919. She received her elementary education in a one-room country school, then attended and graduated from Sheyenne River Academy in Harvey, N.D.

She attended Walla Walla College and worked in the business office, graduating in 1945 with a major in secretarial science, and minors in English, home economics, and business administration. Gurzensky-Roberts worked as a secretary in the offices of the Upper Columbia Conference and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

In 1946 she married Bruce Roberts. After some additional training at the seminary, they worked for three years in the British Columbia Conference, then accepted a call to mission service in Nigeria in 1954. Their final term of service was cut short in 1965 when Alvina died in an automobile accident in Nigeria.

Gruzensky-Robert’s dedication to excellence, her love and respect for others, and her encouragement to those in need were an inspiration to all who knew her. This scholarship was established by Paul and Dolores Gruzensky to commemorate Gruzensky-Robert’s life of unselfish service.

Dr. and Mrs. Howard Osborne Mexican-American Scholarship Howard I. Osborne was born in 1921 in Cassills, Alberta, Canada. His family later moved to California where Howard graduated from Lodi Academy in 1941. He attended Pacific Union College and received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1954. After receiving a medical degree from Loma Linda University in 1958, Howard worked in family practice in Portland, Ore., until his retirement in 1987.

Monta C. Osborne was born to Mexican parents in 1927 in Oakland, Calif. She was adopted in 1931 by an American father and a Mexican mother. Monta also attended Lodi Academy and graduated in 1946. She married Howard the same year. Monta received a degree in nursing from Mt. Hood College in 1980. Howard and Monta had eight children.

Monta encouraged Howard to return to PUC after eight years away from school. After the first year was over, Howard remarked that the program was too hard on the family and suggested that he quit the school. Monta replied, “We can’t stop now. We have one year done and only six more to go.”

The Osbornes have always been dedicated to family, often welcoming other children into their home. The children were given the opportunity to further their education at Adventist schools as long as they desired.

This scholarship is dedicated to providing a Christian education for Mexicans, in honor of Monta’s heritage.

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