Henry Carter Foss

Henry Carter Foss Henry Carter Foss, 92, of Hilton Head, SC died peacefully in his Sea Pines home on Saturday, July 26, his beloved cat Sophie sleeping with him at his feet. The cause of death was complications from heart failure. A retired attorney and national senior tennis champion, Henry was a charismatic and colorful low country personality by way of Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. He was born in Chicago, IL of Norwegian immigrants, Olaf and Anna Foss, and grew up in the inner city, attending public schools. An excellent student, he skipped several grades until his teachers called a halt because of his age. Although Henry was widely known for his tennis, few knew of his youthful marksmanship feats. One of his schoolteachers was an Olympic medalist and he took the sharp-eyed prodigy under his wing. He achieved a national ranking of #5. Henry was frail as a youngster and couldn't hold the rifle steady in the standing position, so he would rock the rifle gently up and down and pull the trigger on the downswing. His scores in the other four positions were tops in the nation. Henry did not take up tennis until after he graduated from Crane Technical High at 16, learning from two brothers who played on the local public courts. He then got coaching from the pro at the River Forest Club, where he had caddied on weekends for many years, and began to improve rapidly. This was the Depression, and Henry got a clerical job with a local insurance firm. After his tennis coach moved out to San Diego, Henry decided to leave Chicago and go to California and work seriously on his tennis game. With only $35 in his pocket, he took a train in 1936 to New Orleans, planning a stopover visit with Emmet Pare, the legendary tennis coach at Tulane University, whom Henry had met in Chicago. According to Henry, Pare told him, "You don't want to go to California, you want to go to college." Pare marched him down to the bursar's office where he signed a note and enrolled on the spot. His tennis skills were still evolving, but as Henry often put it, "I was the 5th man on a four-man team." Each summer, Henry worked construction back in Chicago, making bricks in order to pay off the note for the previous year's schooling. He graduated in 1939 and enrolled in Tulane Law School. As an undergraduate, Henry, an only child, had blossomed socially, becoming a great dancer and favorite of the debutantes in the New Orleans Mardi Gras scene. But then he met Kitty Bernhardt, a graduate student at the school of social work. She was a quiet brunette from an old Salisbury, NC family who was like none of the other girls he had met, and he was smitten. They soon married in an event that was widely covered across the state of North Carolina. When he finished law school in 1943, Henry quipped, "I got my law degree at 11:00 am, my oldest daughter was born at 3:00 pm, and I got my first job at 5 pm." Henry began his legal career while at law school serving as a clerk with the firm of Dart and Dart. Upon graduation, he became associated with the firm of Montgomery, Fenner & Brown until 1944, when he was called to active duty with the Army Air Corps. He served his country as a second lieutenant intelligence and legal officer, and was sent to Yale to study aviation photography. After the war, he attended Duke University and received an advanced law degree, LL.M, and returned to New Orleans to form the law firm of Foss and Tillman. His principal client was The California Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of California. In 1950 he again answered his country's callâ€"this time for the Korean War--by going to Washington, D.C. to serve as legal and financial advisor in setting up the Petroleum Administration for Defense. His work finished by 1953, he entered private practice in Bethesda, MD, and bought a home in Chevy Chase, MD, where he and Kitty raised a family of 3 girls and a boy. His family attended All Saints Episcopal Church where he taught Sunday school. In 1964, he left private practice to rejoin the government, retiring from the US Army Materiel Command in 1989. He bought a condo in Hilton Head, SC, where he owned a vacation time share, spending his remaining years playing tennis and fishing on his boat. While living in Chevy Chase, Columbia Country Clubâ€"known for the caliber of its local and national ranked playersâ€"was a second home for Henry. He thrived on the competition there with chums like Earle Brown, Freddy McNair, Charley Channing, Buddy Goeltz, and Hugh Lynch, and began bringing home trophies from area tournaments, as well as making a name for himself at the national level in senior competition. With the family raised, Henry and Kitty divorced amicably in 1972 and he spent more time with his boat fishing on the Chesapeake Bay. He lived by the water in Annapolis, MD and then in Occoquan, VA, but kept working on his tennis, and ranked in the top five of the national 70 and over. When he retired to Hilton Head, he worked on his tennis game at the South Beach Tennis Club with pro Brian Kiggens. "Henry was amazing," according to Kiggins, "Not only could he hit harder than anyone else his age, but he could still learn something new, like a slice backhand." His labors paid off in 1995 when Henry won the national 80 and over clay-court championship at the Army-Navy Club near Washington DC. He received a hero's welcome on his return to Hilton Head, and played an "exhibition point" with Stan Smith on center court during the Family Circle Tennis Tournament in Sea Pines. A feature article in The Packet noted, "Walking around the South Beach Marina, Henry Foss receives the kind of greeting not seen since Norm last entered Cheers." Henry loved tennis, but never took his trophies seriously. What gave him the most pleasure was the company of people. He had a marvelous sense of humor, and in a sense, his social life was performance art, and tennis was a great way to get on stage. Above all, he knew that tennis opened doors, as his life testified; he began on the streets of Chicago in the Depression, and became a regular on the White House courts during the Kennedy administration. But he was also at home on the sidelines. He loved to sit on the porch in a rocking chair at the South Beach Racquet Club, beer in hand, and dish out quick-witted barbs or expert coaching pointers to his friends on center court. Club owner Don Sigmon remembers his old hitting partner well: "We are honored to have had such a great ambassador for the Sport of a Lifetime as one of our own." Don and his wife Rachel will host a memorial tennis party for Henry on Thursday, July 31 from 5 to 7 pm at the South Beach Tennis Club. All Henry's old friends from across the Island are invited to stop by. Henry supported the Salvation Army all his life. His father Olaf played coronet for the Norwegian Salvation Army in Chicago, where he Henry's mother Anna, a volunteer in the ladies' auxiliary. While Henry's colorful personality was legendary, his friends remember him best for his charitable spirit. He was unfailingly thoughtful, generous, and courteous. Like so many of the Greatest Generation, he thought personal sacrifice was just part of the game. Henry is survived by his former wife, Katherine Berhnardt of Washington, D.C.; his children, Anna A. Buck, Linn B. Foss, Helen C. Foss, and Katherine D. McClintic, all of Washington, D.C.; grandchildren James and Susannah Buck, and Margaret, Katherine, and Henry McClintic; and one grandson on the way. Southeast Death Care & Cremation Services is assisting the family with their arrangements.