Lyle Burmahln (née Pardee) was born in Watsonville, California in 1901. After graduating from Watsonville High School, she moved to San José and worked as a legal secretary. She married Clarence Burmahln on July 10, 1939. Before her death in 1984, Mrs. Burmahln bequeathed $250,000.00 to San José State University. Upon receiving the gift in 1985, SJSU President Gail Fullerton told the Spartan Daily, “This is the largest single gift for scholarship from a private source the school has ever received.” Lyle’s husband, Clarence Burmahln, was born in 1892 and grew up on a farm in Kiel, Wisconsin. His work as a young adult included selling knives and running a haberdashery shop. He eventually moved to California and settled in the Santa Clara Valley, working as a foreman at his cousin's winery in Evergreen. In 1928, he purchased a ranch in Almaden that became his life’s work. The ranch produced fruit, vegetables, nuts, and housed a winery. He died in San José in 1965.