Robert H. Schuller, the 1947 Hope graduate who was the founding pastor of Crystal Cathedral Ministries in Garden Grove, California, died Thursday, April 2, 2015, at age 88.
The Hope College community extends its sympathies to the members of the Schuller family in this time of loss. Hope is grateful for the friendship extended to the college through the years by both Robert Schuller and his wife Arvella, who had served on the college’s Board of Trustees.
Robert H. Schuller was the college’s Commencement speaker in May 1992, and had also spoken during a weekday Chapel service at Hope in March 2010. The Hope College Alumni Association presented him with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1970, and he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Hope in 1973.
His wife, Arvella, who died at age 84 on Feb. 11, 2014, was a member of the Hope College Board of Trustees from 1984 to 1992. She received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the college during the 1992 Commencement ceremony.
Two of the couple’s children also attended Hope—Sheila, who graduated in 1973; and Robert A., who graduated in 1976.
An endowed scholarship was established at Hope in honor of Robert H. and Arvella Schuller in 1997 by William R. Biggs, an educator, entrepreneur and motivator, and his wife Ruth Ann. The scholarship is designed to help deserving students so that they can make positive contributions to the world.