Herman Christof & Erna Muhle Christof Memorial Scholarship

This scholarship was established by Rose Christof in 2013 to honor her father and mother, Herman and Erna. Rose’s was a life well-lived. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended St. Priscilla Catholic school until the age of 9 when her family bought and moved to a farm in Southwest Michigan. Once settled, Rose continued her education and graduated from Bloomingdale High School in 1954. After high school Rose gained employment in the accounting department of Gilmore Brothers department store. She was convinced by her high school friend, Barb (Dickerson) Cloud, to attend college. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in teaching at Western Michigan University in 1960. Rose immediately began her teaching career at Springfield Schools in Battle Creek and continued with her education, earning a Master’s degree in business administration from Western Michigan University.

In the mid-1960s Rose decided to travel to Hawaii to complete a course on community-college curriculum with Dr. Robert Poorman, a decision that greatly influenced and altered her teaching career. After ten years at Springfield schools in Battle Creek, the last three of which she was also teaching night classes at Kellogg Community College, Rose was looking for something new.

Since she loved to travel, she entertained the idea of becoming a flight attendant. While working on her resume, she decided to seek a referral letter from her community-college curriculum teacher, Dr. Poorman. Instead, Dr. Poorman offered her a job at the soon-to-be established Lincoln Land Community College. Rose accepted the job and began immediately as the head of the Business Administration department, a position she held until her retirement in 1995. Upon her retirement Rose returned home to help care for her ailing father.

Rose was a life-long learner and teacher. She loved travel, culture and history. Known at Lincoln Land for her travels, her fingerprints are all over the globe, as she went on several study tours all over the Eurasian landmass and traveled to many places in both North and South America. Rose will be remembered as a very kind and selfless person, who was a mother to the hundreds of others’ children she taught throughout her thirty-five years in education.