Ossenburger is an older alumnus who attended Pencey. He made a fortune as an undertaker, starting funeral parlors selling inexpensive funeral plots. He gives a good deal of money to Pencey. Holden, for example, lives in the Ossenburger Memorial Wing of the new Pencey dorms.

Because Ossenberger is a major donor, all the current students have to kowtow to him and give him a big cheer when he arrives for a visit. They also have to listen to a long speech he gives in the chapel.

Holden is repulsed by Ossenburger, because he thinks he is a horrible phony. In fact, he calls him a "big phony bastard." He outlines the talk Ossenburger gives. Ossenburger begins with "corny" jokes so that people will think he is a down-to-earth kind of guy. He then goes into an evangelical speech about Jesus. He tells the students that he talks to Jesus all the time, even when driving in his car, and advises that they do the same.

Holden believes none of what Ossenburger says, feeling he is a fraud through and through. He even says of the man's low cost burials that

He probably just shoves them in a sack and dumps them in the river.

Ossenberger is a graduate of the school, who has been a contributor to the school. He is honored by having a dorm named for him, the dorm that  Holden lives in.