Evangel alumni create $500K endowment

A Michigan State University professor and author and his wife, who have ties to Evangel University, have created a $500,000 endowment for the Springfield school.

Raymond and Barbara Schmidgall, of Lansing, Mich., have launched the Schmidgall Endowed Chair for Business Excellence, which after five years will have its investment earnings used to recognize a leader and professor in Evangel's Department of Business. Funding from the endowment will allow the selected chair holder to support activities and programs to promote leadership, teaching, faculty development, scholarly pursuit and professional service, according to a news release.

“We have benefited greatly from our own education at Evangel, as well as from the education of our four daughters,” said Raymond Schmidgall, Hilton Hotels professor of hospitality financial management at Michigan State's School of Hospitality Business, in the release. Schmidgall and his daughters graduated from Evangel and his wife attended the college.

“God has blessed our lives beyond our expectations, and we are eager to find meaningful ways to share those blessings with others at Evangel," Schmidgall added.

During each of the five years, the Schmidgalls also will provide the Evangel business department with direct financial contributions.

“Ray and Barbara are excellent role models, as alumni and as parents, and we pray that what they have done and continue to do will be an inspiration to other alumni and friends of the university," Evangel President Robert Spence said in the release.

Raymond Schmidgall serves on the Evangel Board of Directors and one of his daughters and a son-in-law - Erica and Jeremy Harris - are professors in the Evangel Department of Science and Technology.

Schmidgall has authored or co-authored several books on hospitality accounting and finance. The seventh edition of his "Hospitality Industry Managerial Accounting" was published in May by Prentice Hall, according to the publisher's website.