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In Memoriam: Rear Admiral Paul L. Foster, SC, USN

Nov. 26, 2024 | By Sam Cox (Rear Adm. USN, Ret.), Director, Naval History and Heritage Command

It is with deep regret that I inform you of the passing of Rear Admiral Paul Lowe Foster on 2 November 2024 at age 95. Rear Admiral Foster enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in May 1948 and served in the Supply Corps until his retirement in July 1979 as commanding officer of Naval Aviation Supply Office (NASO), Philadelphia. His previous command as a captain was Navy Fleet Material Support Office, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Paul Foster enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on 11 May 1948. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Northwestern University in 1950. He was honorably discharged on 21 December 1950 and commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve the next day. On 28 January 1951, in response to the Korean War call-up, he reported for active duty at the Naval Intelligence School in Washington, DC, as a student. He was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) in June 1952 and the next month reported to Naval Submarine School, Naval Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut, for duty under instruction.

In December 1952, Lieutenant (j.g.) Foster was assigned to submarine USS Tench (SS-417), homeported in Norfolk and conducting operations along the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean. In September 1953, Foster augmented from the Naval Reserve to the U.S. Navy. (On 12 January 1955, while he was assigned to Tench, the submarine briefly ran aground off the Cape Henry lighthouse.) In July 1955, he was promoted to lieutenant while Tench changed homeports to New London. In September 1955, Lieutenant Foster reported to Naval Supply Corps School, Athens, Georgia, from which he graduated the following year.

In April 1956, Lieutenant Foster was assigned to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In May 1957, he reported to the Atomic Energy Commission, Pittsburgh Naval Reactors Operations Office. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in June 1960.

In August 1960, Lieutenant Commander Foster reported to nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) as supply officer, shortly after the submarine returned from its record-breaking around-the-world submerged transit (Operation Sandblast). Operating from New London, Triton deployed to northern European waters for a major NATO exercise that included a port visit to Bremerhaven, West Germany, the first by a nuclear-powered vessel to a European port. During the port call, 8,000 people toured the submarine. In 1961, Triton was redesignated as an attack submarine, SSN-586. In late October 1961, the submarine deployed to the Arctic to monitor a 50-megaton Soviet hydrogen bomb test at Novaya Zemlya (“Tsar Bomba” was the largest thermonuclear device ever created and tested).

In June 1962, Lieutenant Commander Foster was administratively assigned to Headquarters, Potomac River Naval Command, while earning a master’s degree in business administration at George Washington University. He graduated in 1963. That June, he was assigned to the staff of deputy commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, as assistant force supply officer. He was promoted to commander in February 1965. In July 1966, Foster was administratively assigned to the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps unit at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, while earning a doctorate in business administration from the Darden School of Business.

In May 1969, Commander Foster reported to the Office of the Navy Comptroller, Washington, DC, as director, Financial Systems Department. He was promoted to captain on 1 August 1970. In June 1973, he assumed command of Navy Fleet Material Support Office in Mechanicsburg.

In April 1975, Captain Foster was designated a rear admiral for duty in a billet commensurate with that rank. The same month, he was assigned to Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command Headquarters, Washington, DC, as assistant commander for contracts. He was promoted to rear admiral on 1 April 1977.

In June 1978, Rear Admiral Foster assumed command of NASO in Philadelphia. He retired on 1 July 1979.

Rear Admiral Foster’s awards include the Meritorious Service Medal; Navy Occupation Service Medal (Europe); Navy Expeditionary Medal (Special Operations); and National Defense Service Medal (two awards). (He likely was awarded at least one Legion of Merit not reflected in the service transcript, which frequently does not have the last award. The relative paucity of awards was also typical of restricted line communities prior to the 1980s.)

Following retirement from active duty, Rear Admiral Foster led the establishment of the Ervin K. Haub School of Business at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, serving as dean from 1979 to 1987, and then as full-time faculty member (professor of finance) until 2006. He continued to teach virtually after that and subsequently established the Paul L. Foster, PhD, and Corolyn Clark Foster, PhD, Scholarship Fund.

Rear Admiral Foster was the son of Vice Admiral Paul Frederick Foster, awarded the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, and Distinguished Service Medal during his career, and namesake of Spruance-class destroyer USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964). In commissioned service from 1976 to 2003, Paul F. Foster is the last Spruance-class destroyer still afloat, serving as a self-defense test ship.

Rear Admiral Foster enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve while attending Northwestern University. After commissioning as an ensign in the Naval Reserve, he was called to active duty following the outbreak of the Korean War, serving on the recently converted “GUPPY” (greater underwater propulsion program) diesel-electric submarine Tench with duties to include that of an intelligence officer and backfilling behind officers sent to the Korean War zone. Nevertheless, after being selected and transitioning to the Supply Corps, he found his way into operations of significant interest as supply officer on Triton. Although he transferred to the boat just after Triton’s historic submerged circumnavigation of the earth, he was aboard for what was probably the largest public visitation by civilians aboard a nuclear-powered submarine as well as a mission to monitor the largest (by a wide margin) bomb ever detonated, for which he was awarded a Navy Expeditionary Medal (Special Operations). The remainder of his tours were less dramatic, but nonetheless important. He rose through the ranks of the Supply Corps due to his superb leadership skills. His superlative success throughout his career, especially in command of Navy Fleet Material Support Office in Mechanicsburg, earned him promotion to flag rank. His relatively short final tour appears to be a function of getting an offer he couldn’t refuse: the opportunity to establish a new business school at a university and then lead it to national renown. The traits he exhibited on active duty were noted in his second career as dean of the Haub School of Business, where he was seen as “a leader of great vision and decision” and would later be described as a “revered” professor, with three decades of service to the school. Rear Admiral Foster served our nation with great dedication, distinction, and sacrifice of personal and family time, for which the Navy is grateful.

Rest in Peace, Admiral Foster.