Spring Break
University trustee and donor dies at 83
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 10/21/08
Posted online at 4:04 AM EST on 10/21/08
Henry L. Foster, 83, a former University trustee whose donations to the University made a lasting impact on the Rose Art Museum and on scientific research at Brandeis, died at home last Tuesday of cancer, according to University President Jehuda Reinharz.
The funeral took place last Wednesday, according to an article in the Boston Globe. Foster is survived by his wife, Lois Foster and his three sons John Foster '75, James Foster and Neal Foster, according to a University press release.
Reinharz said Foster served on the Board of Trustees for 35 years starting in 1973 and served as Chairman of the Board from 1979 to 1985. He received an honorary degree from Brandeis in 1975.
"Henry Foster was a model trustee in many ways, kind and interested in everybody regardless of their station in life," Reinharz recalled. "A real gentleman who deeply cared about the people and the institutions he supported."
John Foster emphasized how much his father "loved and admired" President Reinharz. "When [Reinharz] first came to Brandeis, my dad really befriended him; they both sought each other's advice," he said.
Reinharz said Foster graduated from Middlesex Veterinary College in 1946, an institution that previously existed on Brandeis' current campus. "We inherited that campus, and so I assume that the initial attraction to [Foster] was the fact that this was in a sense a continuation in some remote sense of the school he had gone to," Reinharz said.
Henry Foster, who served as CEO of Charles River Laboratories, which provides laboratory services for the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology industries, knew a past chairman of the Board of Trustees, Jacob Hiatt, and started supporting the biomedical sciences at Brandeis, his son John Foster said. "His further interest was in the Rose Art Museum, which was the passion of my mother."
In 1975 Foster and his wife Lois raised funds to establish the Lois and Henry Foster Biomedical Research Lab.
The funeral took place last Wednesday, according to an article in the Boston Globe. Foster is survived by his wife, Lois Foster and his three sons John Foster '75, James Foster and Neal Foster, according to a University press release.
Reinharz said Foster served on the Board of Trustees for 35 years starting in 1973 and served as Chairman of the Board from 1979 to 1985. He received an honorary degree from Brandeis in 1975.
"Henry Foster was a model trustee in many ways, kind and interested in everybody regardless of their station in life," Reinharz recalled. "A real gentleman who deeply cared about the people and the institutions he supported."
John Foster emphasized how much his father "loved and admired" President Reinharz. "When [Reinharz] first came to Brandeis, my dad really befriended him; they both sought each other's advice," he said.
Reinharz said Foster graduated from Middlesex Veterinary College in 1946, an institution that previously existed on Brandeis' current campus. "We inherited that campus, and so I assume that the initial attraction to [Foster] was the fact that this was in a sense a continuation in some remote sense of the school he had gone to," Reinharz said.
Henry Foster, who served as CEO of Charles River Laboratories, which provides laboratory services for the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology industries, knew a past chairman of the Board of Trustees, Jacob Hiatt, and started supporting the biomedical sciences at Brandeis, his son John Foster said. "His further interest was in the Rose Art Museum, which was the passion of my mother."
In 1975 Foster and his wife Lois raised funds to establish the Lois and Henry Foster Biomedical Research Lab.
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