Bequest in Name of Founding CSUSB President to Support Students, Library Endowment
Elly Pfau's childhood was in many ways, idyllic. She is the daughter of John M. Pfau, Cal State San Bernardino's founding president, and Antreen Pfau. In 1958, 5-year-old Elly, her 7-year-old sister Madelaine and their parents moved from their home in Chicago, where both girls were born, to Chico, Calif. Her father had been named chair of the department of social sciences and professor of history at Chico State, the second oldest campus in the California State University (CSU) system. John and Antreen met as students at the University of Chicago, where he studied history and she studied zoology, and they married in 1942. The move to California would prove life changing.
Elly recalls the beauty of the Chico State campus, catching crawdads in the creek that meandered through the heart of the university's grounds, and collecting mouse bones beneath the pine trees surrounding her grade school, cast off by the owls that nested above.
"I always remember that as a lovely time in life," she said.
Being involved in campus life would remain a constant for the rest of her childhood and adolescence - and it remains today.
When her father was appointed dean of the humanities department at Cal State Sonoma two years later, the family once again moved, this time to Santa Rosa. Elly and Madelaine adjusted to a new elementary school and Antreen commuted to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Berkeley where she conducted research on radiation and its after-effects.
One evening two years later, in 1962, Elly recalls her father answering the phone. "'You're kidding,'" he said to the caller. After some discussion, "He hung up the phone and told us he had been appointed the first president at Cal State San Bernardino. He was stunned. It was just wonderful."
THE PFAU FAMILY MEETS THE COYOTE FAMILY
That phone call would have a resounding impact on the lives of the Pfau family - and the Coyote family that would soon be their neighbors - far into the future.
The Pfaus bought a home in the foothills, where John tended a grove of orange trees and an avocado tree or two. "Those orange trees were his pride and joy," Elly recollected fondly.
When Elly herself went away to college in 1971, she selected Cal State Chico for its speech pathology program, but never felt too far from Cal State San Bernardino. "John regularly sent boxes of oranges and avocadoes from the grove," she laughed.
She went on to earn a master's degree in audiology from Ohio University and returned to California to complete an internship at Loma Linda University. For the next seven years, she continued to hone her skills as an audiologist and was then recruited by Siemens, an international medical instrument company, as a custom product specialist based in Southern California.
In 1990, at age 36, she seized an opportunity to spread her entrepreneurial wings and purchased a hearing aid business from a retiring business owner in Napa. She refocused its scope as an audiology practice and renamed it Napa Valley Hearing Center.
In the meantime, in the late 1960s, her sister Madelaine had begun studies at the University of California, San Diego, then went on to graduate from Dartmouth College and later earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. "She was a star," Elly said. Madelaine became an executive search recruiter,
eventually becoming a partner with Heidrick and Struggles as a mentor and coach in Dallas. She married Charles Jones, and though he was a classmate at Harvard, they didn't meet until well after graduating.
PRESIDENT PFAU'S LEGACY
John Pfau served as CSUSB president from 1962 - three years before the campus opened - until 1982. After his retirement, he and Antreen remained active in the San Bernardino community before moving to Napa in 1999.
Elly describes her father as "a very gentle man, who was constantly trying to educate himself," she said. "He really believed in education and giving young people the opportunity to learn."
Like her father, Elly believes in the power of education to change lives, and in 2008, she included CSUSB in her estate plans with a $50,000 gift - $45,000 supported the Pfau Family Scholarship, and $5,000 supported the John M. Pfau Library Endowment.
Antreen passed away in August 2011 and John in March 2012; they enjoyed a 70-year marriage. "He never ever raised his voice," Elly said softly. "I never heard him do that. And people on campus said the same thing."
In September 2012, Madelaine and Elly ensured their father's legacy by establishing the campus' first endowed professorship - the John M. Pfau Endowed Professor - with a $100,000 gift. Giving back to Cal State San Bernardino is important, Elly said. "I feel like Cal State San Bernardino was a third child in our family."
The following year, at age 60, Elly sold Napa Valley Hearing Center. "I loved it," she said of her career. Since retiring, she spends time enjoying the beauty of Napa Valley, reading, and "I watch tons of science and history documentaries," she said, noting the influence of her parents. "That was Antreen and John all over," she added, smiling.
Sadly, Madelaine Pfau, who was married to Charles Jones for 36 years, passed away of breast cancer in 2019.
The Pfau family legacy, however, remains strong.
$1 MILLION BEQUEST TO SUPPORT STUDENTS AND LIBRARY ENDOWMENT
In November 2022, Elly generously made a $1 million bequest to two endowed funds at CSUSB. Ninety percent of the gift will support the John M. Pfau Family Scholarship, which was established by Elly, Madelaine and Charles Jones in 2002 to support CSUSB students. Ten percent of the gift will fund the John M. Pfau Library Endowment. This planned gift - a deferred gift to CSUSB made through a donor's estate plan, strengthening the university's ability to shape the lives of future generations - has allowed Elly, and the Pfau family, to create a lasting legacy that will stand for generations at this wonderful institution.
"John was an intense advocate of education," said Elly. Her gift to the library was inspired by her father's love of reading and her own reading habit, which she describes as "a voracious love for books on history and science."
"I hope this gift allows those who are serious students to get a great education and start life in a good position to go forward," she said. "This is a gift from John and I," she added, in memory of her father.
THE JOHN M. PFAU LEGACY SOCIETY
Elly was touched to learn that this year, CSUSB created The John M. Pfau Legacy Society, which is dedicated to recognizing individuals, who, like Elly, have chosen to support the university by including it in their estate plans.
For those considering making a similar gift to CSUSB and becoming a member of the Legacy Society, she emphasized, "It's the future. It's your children, it's your grandchildren. The students who are attending Cal State San Bernardino today will be running the country someday."
For more information about The John M. Pfau Legacy Society, contact the CSUSB Office of Planned Giving at (855) 204-0049, by email at [email protected], or by visiting planmylegacy.csusb.edu.
