From your Journal of American History link:
“[Tom Schachtman] has found that the elder Obama came in 1959 with support from the aasf but appears to have been routed a different way as he made his way to the University of Hawaii.”
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From Tom Schachtman’s book, Airlift:
“As far as can be determined from incomplete records, Mrs. Roberts and Miss Mooney paid his fare to Hawaii and provided a partial scholarship.
Mboya, while unable to transport the twenty-three-year-old, did put him on the AASF list to receive one of the handful of scholarships contributed by the former baseball star Jackie Robinson, which the Scheinman foundation was administering, and encouraged him to look to the AASF for further help if needed, which he later did. “
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From LLI (now ProLiteracy.Org):
With a letter of recommendation provided by Mooney and initial financial support from Laubach Literacy International 5, Obama’s application to study economics at the University of Hawaii was accepted. He was admitted on a scholarship and started his studies in the fall of 1959.
During his time in Hawaii and in need of support as a full time student, Obama reached out to Laubach Literacy International for additional financial assistance. In the spirit of the organizational belief that it could help “build tomorrow’s teams in centers and abroad” the organization awarded Obama a Fund Scholarship to support to his United States studies.
The record of this funding was noted in the organization’s 1961 Annual Report: “Barack Obama, from Kenya, is in an undergraduate program at the University of Hawaii. An honor student, Barack may come later to Syracuse for literacy journalism.” 6 Because of her deep belief in his skills and abilities, Mooney also provided personal financial assistance to Obama to support his tenure at the University of Hawaii.
A reversal of fortune?
#381: A story in the Star-Bulletin on the day he left, June 22, said Obama planned a several-weeks grand tour of mainland universities before he arrived at Harvard to study economics on a graduate faculty fellowship. The story did not mention that he had a wife and an infant son.