Civic leader Everett Foster dies at 67

Everett G. "Rett" Foster, 67, of 10503 Quebec Head Lane, Clayton, a financial consultant widely known across the north country for his exuberance, energy and generosity, died Saturday.

He had been ill with prostate cancer.

Mr. Foster, who was up to the time of his death chairman of the board of trustees of Clarkson University, Potsdam, raised several million dollars from the trustees to build a new house on campus for the president. He also initiated construction of a $25 million student center that will open in the fall.

During his years as chairman, Mr. Foster worked closely with Anthony G. Collins, the university president, to position Clarkson as a pre-eminent university offering high-quality education to a diverse population.

Mr. Collins said in a news release that Mr. Foster's resilient and committed characteristics will be a great loss.

"Rett Foster has given Clarkson a lasting legacy of leadership and progressive direction that befits the attributes of our namesake Thomas S. Clarkson, a man that everyone called friend," Mr. Collins said.

"He was not afraid of adversity in his personal and professional life, but instead engaged people in core values that stand the test of time," he said.

Concurrently with his major work on behalf of Clarkson, Mr. Foster worked with his wife, Judith J., to raise $13.5 million in the public campaign for the expansion of Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown.

He lent his enthusiasm to fundraising campaigns from the Watertown Family YMCA to the Clayton Opera House, and he and his wife were many times lead contributors to those efforts.

From the early days after his move in 1968 to Watertown from Plainfield, N.J., to join the old Foster & Adams brokerage house founded by his grandfather, Howard C. Foster,Mr. Foster became fully engaged in community affairs. He distinguished himself by saying yes to people looking for an enthusiastic board member and volunteer.

As he helped more and more institutions during the 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Foster was named to the board of the Northern New York Community Foundation in 1985. He became president of the foundation's volunteer board in 1990. During his presidency, he and his fellow officers successfully encouraged the late Alex C. Velto to join the foundation as its executive director, paving the way for the dramatic expansion of the foundation's resources and influence. After his term on the foundation expired, Mr. Foster was a member of its investment committee.

Anderson Wise, who served on the board with Mr. Foster, said he was a leader who knew a great deal about investment vehicles that affected the foundation.

"No request was too small or too-time consuming for him," Mr. Wise said. "He was a giver. He and his family gave back in tremendous ways."

A distinguished service award was presented to Mr. Foster in 1973 by the Watertown Jaycees for community interest and leadership ability. The Watertown Junior Chamber of Commerce saluted him as Businessman of the Year, and in 1991, he was cited as Volunteer of the Year by the Cape Vincent Correctional Facility for work in the prison's tutoring program, spending two hours each week providing English instruction to inmates.

His propensity to say yes to requests for help and guidance resulted in his being named Watertown's Citizen of the Year, winning the 1999 Israel A. Shapiro Award. His wife, Judy, had received the Shapiro award in 1993.

On receiving the award, Mr. Foster said, "I like putting in 28 hours in a 24-hour day. I'm blessed with that energy. I don't know why I get awarded for it, but it's a hell of a lot of fun."

His resume of community involvement displays a vast array of interests. In the 1970s, he was a member of the state Senate Higher Education Advisory Council and president and fundraising chairman of the YMCA, where he regularly took advantage of the indoor pool. As campaign chairman and president of United Way of Jefferson County, Mr. Foster and his wife founded the Governor Flower Society, a fundraising arm established to encourage higher levels of charitable giving. Late in the 1970s, he was elected to the town of Watertown council, a seat he held through 1981.

He opened the 1980s as finance chairman for Watertown Urban Mission. He also was a director of the Jeff-Lewis Federal Savings & Loan Association, a director of United Northern Federal Savings Bank and a director and finance committee member of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Also in the 1980s, Mr. and Mrs. Foster became Rotary exchange student hosts.

In the 1990s, he was a board member and treasurer of Dohl Development Corp., head of Thousand Islands Arts Fund and treasurer and board member of the Thousand Islands Land Trust, where he chaired a campaign that raised $1.2 million.

The Samaritan Hospital Foundation brought him on as a board member in 2000.

Also in 2000, he was building committee chairman for Hawn Memorial Library, Clayton, was on the board of directors of the Thousand Island Association's Canadian-American Alliance and was appointed to Clarkson's board of trustees. That group in 2005 elected him its chairman.

Over the years, he filled still other roles: member of the Watertown Downtown Development Task Force; president of the Joint YMCA-YWCA Merger Task Force; founding president of Friends of Hobart and William Smith Rowing; president of the Northern New York Mental Health Association; president of the Cerebral Palsy Association; president of Association for the Blind; president of the Forest Lake Club in Hawley, Pa.; president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and financial supporter of the New York State Zoo at Thompson Park.

Mr. Foster, a native of Plainfield, N.J.,graduated from Colgate University, Hamilton, in 1964, and in 1967 received a master's degree in business administration from Boston University. He served in the Navy. Before taking the Watertown position, he began his career in the trust department of Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., New York City.

He became a general partner at Foster & Adams in 1970. When the firm was acquired by Tucker Anthony in 1977, he remained manager of the office, and was elevated to a vice president in 1979. Two years later, he was appointed director for the firm's upstate New York region and a managing director of Tucker Anthony Holding Co.

The company changed hands in March 2002, becoming RBC Dain Rauscher, and by the end of the year, the Watertown office, with Mr. Foster as branch co-manager with William W. Conde III, was given the firm's outstanding branch award.

In 2008, the company's internal Web site commended Mr. Foster for his work as a member of the SMC board of directors, and recognized him as one of the top 25 producers in the firm, which at the time had about 1,900 financial consultants.

Daniel J. Villa, executive director of the American Red Cross of Northern New York, worked closely with Mr. Foster on the SMC board of directors.

"Rett did a wonderful job for the Samaritan Foundation and the new pavilion and parking garage," he said. "He had a positive influence on everything he worked on. He will be remembered for years and years to come."

Surviving besides his wife, the former Judith Johnson, are a son, Benjamin G., Geneva, a daughter, Katharine V. Meyer, Washington, a brother, Henry, a sister, Susan Work, and four grandchildren.