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Building a legacy of support for scholars

Claude and Shirley Fiddler

Claude and Shirley Fiddler

Following a near 33-year career with Chevron Corp., a job that kept the Fiddler family on the go, Claude and Shirley moved back to Bakersfield. They lived in Northern and Southern California, Western Australia and Louisiana.

During his career, Mr. Fiddler was the manager of what is known today as the San Joaquin Valley Business Unit of Chevron. Following that position he was the general manager of Chevron's offshore operations in Louisiana.

But it is Bakersfield where the couple, married 53 years, wanted to retire and it is CSUB where they wanted to leave a legacy.

The Fiddlers have established two scholarship endowments with a gift of $100,000: the Claude Fiddler Research Scholar Endowment and the Shirley W. Fiddler Nursing Scholarship Endowment. Disbursements from these endowments will provide an annual stipend for the Claude Fiddler Student Research Scholar and an annual scholarship in Mrs. Fiddler's name for a student in nursing.

The couple's intent in establishing the two endowment funds is to financially assist students in pursuit of a bachelor's degree. Mr. Fiddler had a scholarship that enabled him to graduate from Occidental College. He believes CSUB is an asset to Kern County and wants to see the campus thrive.

“We were living in Taft when CSUB was formed,” he said. “By 2007 CSUB had become a vital resource for Kern County. Mike Chertok (the former vice president for University Advancement) helped us evaluate the endowment possibilities at CSUB. The university gives local people the opportunity to get a college degree locally.”

The university has played a role in the Fiddler family for many years. They have two children, Linda and David. Linda earned her bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in special education at CSUB and is an elementary school teacher. She is married to CSUB sociology professor Jim Ross. David is a civil engineer with the Kern County Road Department and is married to Laura Fiddler. Both earned their master's in business administration degrees at CSUB.