Allen Barr Olson was initiated into Sigma Tau at Fresno State. In the 1936/1937 Sigma Tau Booklet he was pictured at a homecoming event and was referred to as “Barr” Olson.

On April 22, 1953 the president and secretary of the Sigma Chi Association, the name of our alumni association at that time, signed an agreement with the Fresno State College Alumni Association to create an endowment in the name of Allen Barr Olson, and they provided a $120 cash contribution. The signatures on the trust document were Sigma Chi alumni president Robert G. (Bud) Fisher (52-T) and secretary Richard (Dick) H. Swartz (52-T). This initial contribution, combined with the White Rose and Allen Barr Olson scholarship funds, would eventually become the largest fraternal scholarship endowment in the CSU System. 

On October 30, 1975 a woman named Irene Josephine “Jo” Olson bequeathed to the Fresno State College Alumni Trust Council a portion of her estate to be used as a scholarship in the name of Allen Barr Olson, a member of Sigma Tau, but now Sigma Chi. The actual amount of the bequest was not stated, but was to be one-half of the “residue” of the estate.

Genealogy research by Rob Bell (95-F) – Allen Barr Olson (“Barr” Olson) was born in Sanger, CA in 1914. He was heavily involved in Sanger High activities, having played football and tennis, being a member of the school’s chorus, orchestra, theatre, stage crew, and serving as business manager for the school yearbook. Foreshadowing Brother Olson’s membership in Sigma Chi, he was also involved in Sanger High’s “Hi-V” Boys’ Club, whose purpose was to “raise the moral standards of the boys, and through them, the school’s.”

In 1932, Brother Olson attended Fresno State and joined the Sigma Tau Fraternity. After college, he started working as a salesman for his grandfather’s business in Exeter, Barr Packing Co. He was best man in his sister, Jane Olson’s, wedding to Brother Charles Hightower (T-52) in 1938, with groomsmen Alfred Appling (T-52), Ellsworth Cox (T-52), Gareth Gillis (T-52) and Darwin Knapp (T-52) also in attendance. Four years later, Barr joined the Navy where he served on the USS Heed in the South Pacific until the war’s end in 1945.

In 1948, Barr married Irene Josephine “Jo” Turner.  Clearly, the fraternity was important to Brother Olson because in the marriage announcement it highlighted the fact that he was “a member of Sigma Tau Fraternity.” 

The Olsons lived in Washington where he was a manufacturer’s representative for the Don Morrill Company, and she was a school teacher. Interestingly, Jo Olson was also a WWII & Korean War Air Force veteran, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retirement.

Twenty years after joining Sigma Tau, Barr and his younger brother John Anthony Olson (T-52) were initiated into the Sigma Chi Fraternity in 1952 at the Chapter’s Installation. He and his wife, Jo, intended to eventually move back to Sanger. But he was tragically killed at the age of 45 after being hit by a vehicle while removing a friend’s snow chains on Steven’s Pass Highway, 30 miles east of their Seattle home.

Barr and Jo had no children. And Jo never remarried. On October 30, 1975, aware of her declining health, Jo Olson bequeathed 1/6 of her and Barr’s estate to the Fresno State College Alumni Trust Council to be used as a scholarship in the name of Allen Barr Olson, who she identified in her will as a “member of Sigma Tau Fraternity, now Sigma Chi.” Clearly, the significance of the Fraternity had been conveyed and appreciated by his widow, who made certain to honor both her husband’s memory and his Fraternity through a perpetual scholarship.

At the time of the will, Jo was still living in King County, Washington, and she requested that she be buried in Sanger Cemetery next to her husband Allen Barr Olson. All Honor To His Name.

The scholarship funds lay dormant at Fresno State but they continued earning interest. In 1987 or 1988, Constantine Sig Brother Dave Reuland (69-F) was Chapter Advisor and Brother Kyle Stephenson (72-F) was a board member of the Fresno State Alumni Association. At one of the meetings someone asked the board if anyone had a contact with the Sigma Chi alumni, and Kyle became aware of the endowment. He contacted Dave who began giving small annual scholarships to undergraduate brothers. On several occasions Jane Hightower, sister of Brother Barr and spouse of Brother Charles, presented the checks to the students on Parents Day.

Dave Reuland

Time passed and as of June 2020, the Allen Barr Olson Scholarship Fund of 1975 totaled more than $139,000 and provided $5,000 in scholarships to our undergraduate brothers for the 2020/2021 school year. Which leads to the old expression, Never underestimate the power of compound interest.