Enduring Impact
A legacy written in scholarships, fellowships, and endowments — giving back across generations.
In their later years, Barney and his wife Vada Kinman Oldfield — herself a University of Nebraska graduate and WWII veteran — devoted their wealth and energy to giving back. Together they established dozens of scholarship and fellowship funds tied to journalism, education, and medical research.
Their combined contributions reached into the millions, funding programs that continue to bear their names and support the next generation of journalists, researchers, and scholars.
Scholarships for journalism students through the Radio-Television Digital News Association Foundation, including a national-security reporting fellowship named for Barney and Vada.
The Vada Kinman Oldfield Alzheimer's Research Fund at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, supporting cutting-edge work in neurodegenerative diseases.
Supporting Dollars for Scholars chapters throughout Nebraska and beyond — direct investment in students who might otherwise lack the means to pursue their education.
Endowments honoring Nebraskans who served in WWII and historical scholarship funds that preserve the memory of service and sacrifice for future generations.
From a small Nebraska town to the beaches of Normandy, the Hollywood Hills, and the scholarship halls of the University of Nebraska — Barney Oldfield lived a life of uncommon range and lasting consequence.
He shaped how the world understood its own greatest drama. He made a president's image. He turned a military slip into a holiday tradition. And then, quietly, he spent his final decades giving it all away.
Col. Arthur Barney Oldfield · December 18, 1909 — April 26, 2003 · Los Angeles, California