Velma Scholl’s $50,000 bequest to Aurora Colony Historical Society wasn’t particularly surprising, although the amount was certainly impressive. Velma, who died in June, 2002, about halfway through her 99th year, supported historical preservation efforts in Aurora long before there was a historical society. 

Nonetheless, there was an element of surprise for most us at Velma’s memorial service and in the days since. It is safe to say that nobody there was completely aware of the scope of this remarkable woman’s accomplishments. 

In part, Velma’s longevity was to blame for that. Most of us at the memorial were not alive when Velma became the first woman to graduate from University of Oregon’s School of Business, and then the first woman to take Master’s degree there. We probably weren’t watching the business pages from the 1920s to the mid-’60s when the entire world was being introduced to Jantzen swimwear, in part through the efforts of Jantzen’s director of International Marketing, Velma Scholl. We weren’t around to meet the globetrotting, mountain-climbing, business-executive Velma. 

In any case, we weren’t likely to hear about those things from Velma. She found everything — literally everything — more interesting, and steered conversation away from herself. She was interested in what we were doing. And she worked quietly, persistently and effectively with her resources and her energy at causes that were dear to her: education, local history, and the environment, to name a few. 

Information came in bits and pieces as friends rose to speak at the memorial service at Mt. Angel. 

There was a nursing scholarship in place at University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, funded by Velma. “That had been going on for years — I can’t begin to tell you how many,” said Dorothy Scholl Ross, Velma’s sister. Dorothy is 88 years old, and when she says a long time, she means a long time. 

There was the matter of Hubbard’s historical society. Velma felt strongly that Hubbard, the home of her material grandparents George and Otillia Will Wolfer after the dissolution of the Aurora Colony, should be aware of its beginnings. Velma shared her energy and her recollections, and information from her personal historic archive — the attic of the Scholl family home in Hubbard. In addition, a street and a local parkway carry historic family names at least in part through Velma’s efforts. 

A Mennonite minister rose to speak. Velma had been involved in a peace studies program through his church, and at that very moment there was a peace worker in Chile due to the generosity of Velma Scholl. 

There was more. "I was surprised when we read her will," said Dorothy. "She was supporting things I had never even heard of, mainly environmental things." Velma was a member of the Mazamas, a mountain climbing group in Portland. She was an avid hiker for as long as she was able, and she supported a variety of environmental causes.

The personal reminiscences were informative. A number of local historians found the answers to perplexing questions in the archives in Velma’s attic. "I might be able to help you with that," she would say, and would come back with the exact thing we were looking for — or something even better. Velma’s dandelion wine received more than one mention. It seems to have been consistently good over many years. And Frank Shields, Velma’s nephew, recalled that she showed him how to witch for water. 

Thanks to Velma and Dorothy, a great many Wolfer-Will-Scholl family artifacts are now property of Aurora Colony Historical Society, including letters home from college and items from the career of a woman who was a high-powered business executive at an age, and in a time, when it wasn’t considered proper for her to be living on her own. (She boarded with her great-uncle and aunt, E. U. and Maggie Will for her first years in Portland.) Other items, including some of interest to students of the Jantzen company, found a home at Oregon Historical Society. 

The cash bequest to Aurora Colony Historical Society was "… to be used used for upkeep of the buildings and advancement of the organization and programs directed by the Board of Directors."