2 Sisters Leave $4 Million to Cal Lutheran University

Two sisters who lived frugally and invested an allowance from their wood-carver father have left Cal Lutheran University $4 million, the largest gift in the school’s history, officials announced Tuesday.

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The donation, from Esther and Florence Potenberg, nearly doubles the Thousand Oaks university’s endowment fund, bringing it to $10 million.

Interest income from the gift, expected to be about $200,000 a year, will be used to fund a professorship in the religion department and to finance other university programs, officials said.

School President Luther S. Luedtke said the university was “deeply grateful” for the Potenbergs’ “generosity and vision.”

The Potenbergs were born in Chicago to a German immigrant wood engraver, Charles F. Potenberg, who urged them to invest every penny they made.

They spent most of their lives in Pasadena, where they were affiliated with Trinity Lutheran Church and Hill Avenue Grace Lutheran Church.

University officials said the sisters became interested in Cal Lutheran through their churches. The two also traveled to China and Israel on tours guided by Cal Lutheran professors.

Friends described the trips as rare splurges for the sisters, who were said to be impressed by the good behavior of the Cal Lutheran students who traveled with them.

A profile in the university’s alumni magazine described the sisters as faithful Christians, “inseparable and very conservative.”

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They also loved to bake, entering and winning contests with their cakes and cookies.

A Times article about a county fair in Pomona described the sisters as “retired office girls,” arriving with a carload of baked goods. They worked for various businesses in Chicago and California, including Northwest Railroad and Thrifty Drug company.

The university named a residence hall in honor of the Potenbergs in 1993.

Florence Potenberg died April 15, 1992, at age 90, and Esther died Jan. 25, 1994, at age 95. They left no living relatives and had arranged in their wills to provide money to the university.

Luedtke said his last visit with Esther was deeply moving, because although she had Parkinson’s disease and had been unable to speak for months, she was able to recite with him the entire Lord’s Prayer.

George Engdahl, the university’s vice president in charge of fund raising, said the gift will help the university’s reputation as well as its finances.

“Universities are measured not only by the quality of their academic programs but also by the size of their endowments,” Engdahl said.