Evelyn Rayzor Nienhuis’ Texas roots taught her the value of education, vision, and hard work. The longtime community philanthropist has been involved in many local initiatives since moving to Tulsa from Houston in 1954 with her late husband, Lester Nienhuis, M.D. Dr. Nienhuis, who specialized in general surgery, was associated with Saint Francis Hospital and was a co-founder of Surgical Associates, Inc.
Mrs. Nienhuis fell in love with Tulsa and became involved in several nonprofit and community groups, including Tulsa Town Hall, Tulsa Philharmonic, Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, Nienhuis Park Community Center in Broken Arrow, and Neighbor for Neighbor.
Her father, J. Newton Rayzor, was an accomplished attorney and businessman who, in 1927, formed one of the most important admiralty law firms in Houston, Texas, specializing in the governance of maritime activities and private international law governing the relationships between private entities operating vessels on the oceans. He also started a shipping firm and was a passionate advocate for education, believing in its power to transform lives and communities.
Mr. Rayzor’s dedication to education is evidenced by the endowment and buildings established at Rice University, including the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought, Rayzor Hall and Rice Chapel, for which he provided full funding. Also at Rice, his wife endowed a mathematics chair in memory of her father, Milton B. Porter, who was a math professor at Texas University. Mr. Rayzor’s philanthropy and support of education was acknowledged when a school in Denton, Texas, was named in his honor – the Newton Rayzor Elementary School.
By 1999, Evelyn and Lester Nienhuis had already been supporting both academics and athletics at The University of Tulsa for nearly 30 years, and they generously established a permanent scholarship endowment that year, which is formally known as the Nienhuis/Rayzor Presidential Scholarship Fund.
Later, Evelyn Rayzor Nienhuis and her son, Jim, chose to strengthen their family’s TU legacy through their support of J. Newton Rayzor Hall, the home of TU’s computer science and electrical engineering programs. The two-story 34,000-square-foot facility features 24 integrated classrooms and teaching/research laboratories, 33 faculty and graduate student offices, two conference rooms, and five student commons areas with a student organizations office. Dedicated in fall 2011, Rayzor Hall will be a lasting symbol of their leadership and generosity to the university.
Evelyn also served as a member of the TU Board of Trustees from 2013-2017, adding perspective and counsel to the long list of ways she had already supported the university. She continues to hold the title of Trustee Emerita.
In her service as a Trustee, Mrs. Nienhuis worked closely with then-President Steadman Upham, and she was deeply saddened when Dr. Upham passed away unexpectedly in July of 2017, only eight months after retiring from the TU presidency. In an effort to memorialize her friend and colleague and to support TU’s scholarship program, Evelyn Rayzor Nienhuis created a scholarship endowment fund, which is known as the Steadman Upham Endowed Scholarship Fund, a need-based scholarship for students in any major.
Mrs. Nienhuis also wished to create an annual scholarship program for incoming freshmen majoring in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The Evelyn Rayzor Nienhuis STEM Scholarship Fund began supporting students in 2018, with her funding to follow that initial cohort of scholars for four years.
The University of Tulsa is deeply grateful for Evelyn Rayzor Nienhuis’ profound devotion to higher education. This commitment is helping TU students achieve their goals each and every year.
