Written by Lucian Parshall
The Muhammad Subuh Foundation (MSF) recently established an Education Support Fund. This Fund was created by Lucian and Hannah Parshall to honor Lucian’s mother, Loretta. Its purpose is:
“To provide financial support through a Loretta Parshall Scholarship Program for the educational needs of students throughout the Worldwide Subud Community.”
These scholarships will assist students within our Subud Community to achieve their talents and realize their occupational goals to the fullest extent possible. Students at all levels, from pre-school to high school, will be eligible. Students may be active Subud members or in the family lineage of a Subud member.
The Scholarship Program will be administered by Susila Dharma International Association (SDIA). Dividends from the endowment funds will be used for the awards, so that the program can exist in perpetuity. In the next year or so, SDIA will establish procedures to manage the Loretta Parshall Scholarship Program. These include: finishing the scope and amount of the awards, designing the web application, creating a review team, and setting timelines for submission.
SDIA anticipates that the Loretta Parshall Scholarship Program will begin next summer, before the Fall semester of 2026.
Who was Loretta Parshall?
The Fund and Scholarship Program was set up to honor my mother, Loretta Parshall (1915-2011), a first-generation immigrant. While she never graduated from High School, she always stressed the importance of attaining a good education to her six sons and daughter, as well as her 38 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
My father named me after his father, who died just before I was born. When I explained Subud to both my parents and changing my name to ‘Lucian’, the name Bapak provided, my father was understandably very upset. He never accepted Subud and saw my name change as a rebuff. However, my mother said she wanted to experience the latihan immediately. She was always open to the worship of God in any way.
Loretta lived in a small rural area of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. Fortunately, Malinda Klafter, a member who was living somewhat nearby in Rochester, NY opened her. She was 60 years old at the time. Essentially, she was an isolated member only able to do latihan on and off with Malinda, or with my wife Hannah when we visited, and later with our Subud sister, Jasmin Webb. By great fortune, Jasmin had reason to visit the Finger Lakes regularly to check on her own mother, who had a summer cottage just four miles from Loretta. Mashallah.
The number of members in Subud USA who knew Loretta could be counted on one hand. Yet she would do latihan for over 30 years till her passing at age 92, always pressing the value of a good education to her family.
In my grade school years, I had to walk a mile or so every morning to a Catholic School. My mother would always stand by the front door with her parting words to me, “Walk with God.”. I never realized how profound those words were till I found the latihan.