Longtime Cal Lutheran donor, regent dies

Humanities building was named to honor Marv Soiland

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Marv Soiland was recruited to join Cal Lutheran’s Board of Regents in 1974. 

Photo: Brian Stethem

(SANTA ROSA, Calif. – Feb. 11, 2016) Marv Soiland, a generous donor and longtime regent of California Lutheran University, died Monday in Santa Rosa. He was 88.

Soiland, who was born into a family active in the Norwegian Lutheran Church, was recruited to join Cal Lutheran’s Board of Regents in 1974. He served on the board until 1995 and headed the Administration and Finance Committee for 20 years. He went on to serve on the California Lutheran Educational Foundation Board of Trustees and as an advisory member of the Board of Regents. The founder and owner of construction and real estate development companies, Soiland provided invaluable guidance to the university during a time of expansion. He took a special interest in the merger with Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley in 2014.

His first donation to the university was four horses that he gave to the equestrian program. He and his wife, Fran, went on to become two of Cal Lutheran’s most generous donors. Soiland Humanities Center was named in recognition of the couple’s ongoing generosity and of Soiland’s leadership when it opened in 1998. The couple also contributed to Pearson Library, Samuelson Chapel, Spies-Bornemann Center for Education and Technology, Swenson Center for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, which contains Soiland Gym. The couple created the university’s Soiland Family Endowed Scholarship a decade ago.

Cal Lutheran presented Soiland with a Distinguished Service Award in 1996, an honorary doctorate in 2004 and the Christus Award in 2010.

Five of Soiland’s seven children graduated from Cal Lutheran in the 1980s and 1990s. One of his grandsons earned a bachelor’s degree from Cal Lutheran in the same ceremony in which Soiland received his honorary doctorate.

Born in San Francisco on June 28, 1927, Soiland graduated from high school at 16 and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Oregon State University. He served two tours of duty in the U.S. Navy, one during World War II and the other during the Korean War. He began his 50-year career in Sonoma County shoveling ditches for an underground utilities contractor. He launched Soiland Company in 1962, and his children continue to run it and related businesses today. Soiland’s biggest project was a 2,700-acre development at the edge of Santa Rosa that includes Shiloh Estates, the Mayacama Golf Club and Shiloh Ranch Regional Park.

Soiland died of natural causes after battling congestive heart failure. He is survived by Fran, his children, his brother and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 20 at Spring Hills Community Church in Santa Rosa. Memorial donations can be directed to Cal Lutheran, the Soiland Donor Advised Fund at Community Foundation Sonoma County, Memorial Hospice in Santa Rosa or Spring Hills Community Church.

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