Margery Foster

Margery Somers Foster passed away quietly September 22, 2007 at her home in Francestown, N.H. after a short illness. Her many friends and admirers will remember her keen mind, sparkling wit, indomitable will and her great love of adventure. The daughter of Brent and Grace (Butler) Foster, Margery Foster was born in Boston in 1914 to parents who passionately believed in education; if she went to the library each week and read the books selected by her mother, she could escape household chores. After skipping several grades, Margery Foster earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College in 1934 and her Ph.D. in Economics from Radcliffe College in 1958. Her fields of interest were public finance, economic development and economic history. Her doctoral thesis, published as “Out of Smalle Beginnings, An Economic History of Harvard College in the Puritan Period, 1636-1712 focused on how the general economic factors of the Puritan era influenced the development of Harvard College. Margery Foster began her working life as an assistant actuary for the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1934-1943. During World War II, she spent four years as an administrator in the U.S. Naval Reserve, leaving as a lieutenant. After the war, Foster bought a house in Francestown, N.H. from where she commuted to jobs as the deputy comptroller (1946-1948) and director of development (1948-1954) for Wellesley College. She taught economics at Harvard College (1956-1958), Mount Holyoke College (1958-1964), and Hollins College (1964-1967), before serving as the fifth dean of Douglass College at Rutgers University from 1967 through 1975. During a period in which many women's colleges were transformed into coeducational institutions, Margery Foster fought to maintain Douglass College as a thriving women's college. Foster’s academic career at Douglass exemplified her commitment to strengthening higher education for women. She led a vigorous program to recruit women students from all corners of the New Jersey; initiated discussions to develop a women's studies program; greatly expanded the enrollment for returning older students; and with the assistance of alumnae, she founded the campus Women's Center to meet the growing needs of returning women students and workers. During the period of student unrest in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Margery Foster will be remembered for her tenacious ability to negotiate settlements amongst people with divergent points of view. To honor her, Douglass College created the Margery Somers Foster Center, a multi-media research and digital archive for the study of women, scholarship and leadership. In other realms of her professional life, Margery Foster was a member of the American Economics Association, the Economic History Society, the Economic Society, Phi Beta Kappa and the American Association of University Professors. She served on the accreditation committee of the Southern Regional Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools; was a member of the National Committee on Examinations of the College Entrance Examination Board; and served on both the Administrative Committee of the College Research Center and the Educational Foundation Development Committee of the American Association of University Women. Margery Foster’s distinguished academic career also led her into the corporate world where she became the first woman to sit on the Boards of Directors of Public Service Electric and Gas Company and the Prudential Life Insurance Company. After retiring from her academic and corporate responsibilities, Margery Foster traveled widely throughout the western United State, Europe, the Soviet Union and Russia, including long trips across Siberia by train. Margery Foster built a simple but beautiful residence in Big Sur, California, which she occupied seasonally for many years, and then settled in a six-room John Calvin Stevens cottage on Great Diamond Island off Portland, Maine where she became a founding trustee of the Island Institute. Margery Foster’s intense commitment to island conservation and the unique aspects of island culture were admired throughout Maine before she retired and returned to Francestown, N.H. completing her long arc of transcendent experience and achievement.