Foster, Walter D. 'Wally'

Walter D. “Wally” Foster, 94, of Iowa City, died Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, at the Briarwood Health Care Center in Iowa City. Memorial services will be held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Parkview Church in Iowa City.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Parkview Church, 15 Foster Rd., Iowa City, IA 52245, in his memory.

Online condolences may be sent for his family through the web at .

Walter Foster was born in Columbia, Mo., on March 21, 1917, to Dean Edward Foster and Rosa (Bixler) Foster. He was preceded in death by his mother on Nov. 11, 1976 and his father on Jan. 11, 1953.

Surviving are his two sons, Curtis D. Foster of San Marcos, Calif., and Richard S. Foster of Catonsville, Md.

Walter graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1934, and Grinnell College in 1939 - holding the college swim team record for breast-stroke for four years. Wally was instrumental in beginning the national Cub Scouting program and became the first Den Chief and his mother, the first Den Mother in the U.S.

He married Elizabeth Shaw of Paxton, Ill., in 1941 and had two sons, Curtis Dean now living in San Marcos, Calif., and Richard Shaw, now living in Catonsville, Md. After his wife of 50 years died, he married his college sweetheart, Elizabeth Duggleby Gilmore in 1993 at Parkview Church with Pastor Jeff Gilmore (Elizabeth's son) presiding.

After serving in military service from 1942 to 1946, he returned to college and earned both an M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Experimental Statistics with minors in mathematical statistics at the North Carolina State College and the University of North Carolina in 1950.

Foster served as a statistical consultant for the Universities of Cornell, West VA., Main, Vermont, Penn State and Rutgers, searching for malnutrition in a variety of populations specifically selected as groups likely existing with substandard nutrition. He then was called back into service for the Army as the senior statistician in research and development as chief of the biomathematics division. He also served for 13 years on the Army's Mathematical Steering Committee with responsibility for establishing seminars in probability and statistics at various army institutions. He then served on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital as senior statistician for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) where he served for ten years before retiring in 1983.

Wally was an avid canoeist specializing in canoe sailing, enjoyed opera, classical music and singing church hymns.

Wally taught adult Bible classes, was an ordained elder, loved participating in the Senior Huddle at Parkview Church, embraced small group life at Parkview and acted as the coordinator for communion servers at Parkview for ten years.

Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service is assisting in Wally's arrangements.

Published in The Gazette Jan. 23, 2012.