Arthur Fillmore Foster

ARTHUR FILLMORE FOSTER
1928 - 2009


After a long struggle with heart disease, Santa Maria resident Arthur F. Foster passed away peacefully in his sleep at home on January 10, 2009. Born in Richland, Saginaw County, Michigan on March 19, 1928, Arthur was the devoted husband of Ursula M. Foster for 55 years.
One of 6 children born to Christian Everett Foster and Alma Tippin-Foster, Arthur grew up in Midland, Michigan during the Great Depression along with sisters Esther, Niki, Franny and brothers Cecil and Robert. As a child he enjoyed outdoor activities such as fishing and camping. In school his favorite subjects were science and industrial arts.
After receiving his diploma from Midland High School in 1949 he began a long and distinguished career in the United States Army. He reported first to the Signal Corps training facility in Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. His subsequent assignment to a remote mountain radar station in Bavaria turned out to be one of the luckiest events of his military career. He fell in love with a local village girl, Ursula, and began a romance that lasted until the day he died. Arthur and Ursula were married on May 2nd, 1953.
After Germany, Arthur was assigned to the guided missile school at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Always a keen student when it came to electrical and mechanical systems, he distinguished himself at the school, rising from the rank of corporal to warrant officer in only two years. During his 23-year military career Arthur served overseas in Germany, Luxembourg, South Korea, Japan, Iceland, Greenland and Turkey.
Arthur Foster retired from the military in 1972 and began his second career as a logistical engineer for a variety of high profile defense contractors including General Dynamics, LTV Corporation and Lockheed-Martin. His work on Martin-Marietta's Peacekeeper Missile system project brought him to Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Santa Maria community in 1983 where he decided to retire in 1987. During his retirement he avidly pursued his two favorite hobbies, woodworking and coin collecting.
Besides his wife Ursula, Arthur is survived by his daughter Heidi, his sons William, Harold, and Alan, grandchildren Todd Tedsen, Anna Tlam Foster, and Chad Foster, his brothers Cecil and Robert, and his sisters Niki and Franny. He was predeceased by his father Everett, his mother Alma, his stepmother Esther as well as his older sister Esther.
A memorial service will be held at the Santa Maria Veterans' Memorial Center, 313 W. Tunnell St., Monday, January 19th at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, and in keeping with Arthur's own commitment to supporting the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families, his family requests donations be sent to the USO (P.O. Box 96860, Washington, D.C. 20077-7677 or online at www.uso.org/donate/).