Roger Olson Endowed Scholarship

The endowment fund was established in memory of the Donor’s father, Roger Olson, to provide a funding resource for the department of history. Roger Olson was born in 1923 in Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated high school and then joined the US. Navy, serving as a gunner’s mate aboard the attack destroyer USS Stanley for the duration of World War II. After the war, he worked throughout his life as a butcher. He was a patriot and an advocate for higher education, even though he enjoyed few opportunities for such in his own life. James S. Olson, a historian and member of the SHSU faculty since 1972, was born in Downey, California, in 1946. He earned the BA degree from Brigham Young University in 1967 and the MA and Ph.D. degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1969 and 1972.