Long before he became one of America’s foremost voices for public higher education, Allan William Ostar ’48 Edu volunteered for the U.S. Army after one year at Penn State. As a corporal, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was among the first American soldiers involved in the liberation of Dachau concentration camp. Rescued during the war by a tank unit of Black soldiers whose heroism he never forgot, Ostar returned to Penn State to act on long-held convictions about equal opportunity. 

As editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian, where he met his wife, Roberta “Bobbie” Hutchison ’48 Com, Ostar wrote editorials opposing the idea of the football team playing in Texas on the condition that its Black players stay home, says daughter Karen Ostar Kleinheksel. The entire team ultimately played in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1948. Ostar also organized a boycott of local barbers who refused to serve Black customers.

Daughter Becca Ostar Gregerson says promoting accessible higher education was central to his life. From 1965 to 1991, he led the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), transforming it into a national voice for public higher education. He helped draft the Higher Education Act of 1965; Becca recalls placing pushpins on a map as a child each time a new college joined AASCU.

Ostar received the Bronze Star Medal for valor, earned 27 honorary doctorates, and was a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus and an Alumni Fellow. He and Hutchison endowed the Ostar Hutchison Scholarship for an editorial staff member at The Daily Collegian.

Ostar (Alum. Council, Froth, La Vie, Lion’s Paw, Skull & Bones) died April 17, 2026, in Tinton Falls, N.J. Besides his wife and daughters, he is survived by son John ’88 Eng, six grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters. —Katherine O’Brien