Born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 21, 1931, Clyde Foster graduated from Parker High School in Birmingham in 1950 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from Alabama A&M University in 1954.
Foster was working as a science teacher in Dallas County school system near Selma, Alabama from 1956 to 1957 before he joined the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) at Redstone Arsenal as a mathematician technician. On July 1, 1960, Foster was among the nucleus of employees who transferred to the newly established NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. He worked in the Center's Computation Laboratory as a mathematician and instructor. Soon after Marshall established its Equal Opportunity Office in 1972, Foster became a staff officer and in 1975 became its first deputy director. From 1968 to 1970, Foster worked at Alabama A&M University as director of the Computer Science Department where he helped establish a Data Processing Laboratory and an undergraduate degree program in Computer Science.
In June 1975, Marshall management named Foster to the position of director of the Equal Opportunity Office where he directed and administered a comprehensive program to assure equal opportunity in the conduct of all operations undertaken by the Center and its contractors. Foster retired from Marshall in 1986.
His contributions to local government and his community, in addition to his achievements within the federal government, are numerous. Foster was instrumental in the restoration of the town charter for the community of Triana, Alabama, originally chartered by the state in 1819. In 1964, the governor of Alabama appointed Foster to be mayor of Triana. He served in that capacity until September 1984, leading the town in major improvements in housing, street and light improvement, employment training, and industrial expansion.
Image credit: NASA/MSFC
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