Laying Foundations for Science at CUI

Jim and Gail Rahn joined the CUI family of faculty early in the university’s history, when students numbered about 40 and every classroom and office was contained in a single building on the Irvine campus. As a science professor, Jim helped build the culture and curriculum of the sciences at CUI (then called Christ College Irvine). Gail, too, spent 30 years teaching in Lutheran schools in the Midwest and in California, helping to shape a generation.

“The Rahns are a humble, wonderful Lutheran family,” says Tim Jaeger, vice president of advancement, marketing and communications. “They have always been generous and faithful in their giving.”

Gail says teaching comes down to “a commitment to care and to encourage. We want students to know whose they are and who called them. The best gift any parent can give is to let a child know he or she belongs to Jesus and is an eternal treasure.”

We want students to know whose they are and who called them.

Recently, Gail created an endowment in memory of Jim, who went to be with the Lord in 2015. Her goal: to keep building CUI’s science programs for the future the way she and Jim did in the past, through their service and financial support. The new scholarships generated by their endowment gift will support future science teachers, particularly in the areas of chemistry and physics.

In a way, Gail felt she was just giving back. “The school had taken a risk hiring us with four kids to come out here and have an adventure,” Gail says, speaking of a day back in 1978.

Railroad Kid

Gail grew up in a Midwest railroad worker’s home, where family vacations could take them up to Canada or down to Mexico City. She attended St. John’s Lutheran College in Winfield, Kansas, then enrolled and graduated from Concordia University Chicago (then Concordia River Forest). 

Jim, by contrast, was born and raised on a farm in Minnesota, where he baled hay and milked cows until leaving for college to become a teacher. Both Jim and Gail went directly into teaching, and Gail remembers running a one-room schoolhouse with a pot-belly stove and 12 children in six different grades in Illinois.

“We piled into my car for recess and I would take them up to the farm where I was renting the upper room, and we’d fly kites in the field across the way,” she says.

He met that challenge head on. It put that school on the map, which is still going strong today.

Jim met Gail at a mutual friend’s wedding, and invited her on a date for the following morning — so they found themselves sitting together in the balcony of a Lutheran church in Huntington, Indiana. Before leaving for home, Jim asked if he could write letters to Gail, and so their relationship began.

When Jim next visited, four months later for Easter, he brought a mysterious box with him.

“I opened the box and there were three rings: an engagement ring, a wedding ring and his ring,” Gail recalls. “He said, ‘I’d like to ask you to marry me.’” Gail said “yes” on the spot, though the two had only seen each other in person twice.

They moved to Minnesota where Jim worked at Concordia University, St. Paul as a recruiter and teacher in a Lutheran academy. He then became the principal of a joint venture between the academy and the university’s high school.

“He met that challenge head-on,” Gail says. “It put that school on the map, which is still going strong today.”

The Rahns had four boys — John, Joel, Jake and James — the middle two being born while the family lived on campus. A voracious learner, Jim constantly pursued additional degrees, including at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, then at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley for his doctorate. The Rahns headed west in 1978 to join a ragtag bunch of young educators who had recently founded a Lutheran college in Orange County.

“There was nothing in science at Christ College back then,” Gail says. “There was one building. The CFO also taught biology.”

A Lutheran school in the Midwest sent its used lab equipment out to Jim, supplying the first science lab on campus with test tubes, Petri dishes and so on.

The Rahns and Charles and Barbara Manske hit it off right away, as kindred souls spiritually and academically.

“They were our best friends,” Gail says. “We would go out with them. Barb was a gracious deaconess and hospitality person. Charles was spicy. He kept the college going because he was so ornery. He never gave up.”

Gail taught elementary school at Trinity Lutheran School (now Trinity Cristo Rey) in Santa Ana as part of her 30-year teaching career. At CUI (Christ College Irvine back then), Jim wrote curriculum, built labs and rounded up faculty and students for softball games.

“Jim was very fun-loving,” Gail says. He helped start a cross-country team when the school had just 45 students. Two of the Rahns’ own sons later ran on the team. Jim also got hold of a telescope and taught astronomy, and used his private rock collection to teach geology. Field trips to ocean caves enhanced the early college experience, and Jim drove students there in his tank of a Chrysler.

Administratively, Jim helped the science division establish a rotating chair position.

“You take a turn at having a chair of the division, and then [when it’s someone else’s turn] you can criticize what they are doing,” Gail says with a laugh.

Jim’s favorite part of university life was being with students. “He loved getting to know them,” she says. “He loved writing curriculum and worked on that with Dr. Moon.”

Bret Taylor, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, says the Rahns have made a lasting impact on the campus and on a science program that is now moving into new levels of excellence, with the recent introduction of computer science and engineering majors.

“Jim Rahn’s influence on the CUI science community is still evident today through the alumni that he formed who are now in industry and education, and some of whom are engaged directly with CUI’s mission,” says Taylor. “Jim’s gentle and humble spirit, combined with a passion for exploring God’s creation through the sciences, is still part of the culture and work of the sciences here. Jim and Gail always showed the utmost care and concern for the students, staff and fellow faculty at CUI. Their love of Lutheran education in the sciences, from the littlest ones through high school and into higher education, is a lasting legacy which serves as a model for the Christian response to Christ’s work in their lives.”

When Jim was 57, he decided to take on one more challenge: becoming a pastor. He took seminary classes and was ordained on campus at Irvine, becoming the Rev. Dr. Jim Rahn.

“It was special,” Gail says.

He served as the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Long Beach for 15 years.

“The hope, most of all, is to keep the science program current with the times and to encourage early childhood through master’s and doctorates in science programs into the future.”

Today, Gail remains tightly knit with the CUI community, and speaks with delight about the musical happenings on campus.

“I love the sculptures in the chapel and the free flow of the Spirit and how worship is so enhanced by the banners and the structure,” she says. “Then when you look at the Borland-Manske Center and the recording they did in that, that it made it on PBS — I just love the music program. The recording is just phenomenal.”

Jim and Gail traveled the world whenever they had an opportunity, and Gail continues to travel - as she has since she was little. Three of their boys are CUI alumni, and their families participate in homecoming and on-campus events.

“I attend all the women’s things that I can,” says Gail.

One Rahn grandchild came home from the CUI campus one day and said, “Did you know there’s a lounge with grandpa’s name on it?” Gail explained that it was the place where Jim would bring pizza for science study groups he led.

The endowment she created will extend their family legacy into the future, she believes.

“The hope, most of all, is to keep the science programs current with the times and to encourage early childhood through master’s and doctorates in science programs into the future,” says Gail. “Unless you have an endowment program, it’s hard for schools to keep up. Jim’s vision was to stay on the cutting edge of technology. We are blessed to help Concordia Irvine accomplish that.”