THOUSAND OAKS : University Receives $1.8-Million Gift

Cal Lutheran University has received $1.8 million--the largest onetime donation in the university’s 33-year history--from the estate of two sisters.

Florence and Esther Potenberg, lifelong Lutherans who learned of the Thousand Oaks university through their church, established a charitable trust in 1989 bequeathing their Pasadena home to the university.

Now, a year after Florence Potenberg died at the age of 90, the university has received $1.8 million from the trust fund. The gift will boost Cal Lutheran’s endowment to $8 million, officials said.

Instead of dividing the money among various programs, the Potenbergs requested that their gift remain intact as endowment money, earning interest for the university’s annual operating budget, according to a university spokeswoman.

The sisters “have established a living legacy at California Lutheran University,” President Luther S. Luedtke said in a statement announcing the gift. “Young people, for years to come, will have the opportunity of a distinguished Christian higher education because of their contributions.”

Although neither sister attended Cal Lutheran--they were both more than 55 years old when the university was founded--the Potenbergs participated in Cal Lutheran study trips abroad with professors and students.

Esther Potenberg, 93, lives in Pasadena.

Their father, Charles F. Potenberg, was a wood engraver whose works are on display at the Cal Lutheran library.

While the trust donation was the largest single gift to Cal Lutheran, the university received $2.8 million in cumulative grants from the Pacific Southwest Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, which contributed to the university from 1962 to 1987, officials said.