Dr. Foster, the son of John B. Foster and Laura Milton Foster, was born in Crenshaw County on March 1, 1884. He graduated from the Atlanta Dental College in 1905, now Emory University, and came to Opp to begin his dental practice. Here he met and married Myrtle McGee of Childersburg, and to this union two sons were born, John Clifford Foster, Jr., Esther, Florida, and Paul Scott Foster, M. D., who lives in the family home on East Hart Avenue, Opp.
Dr. Foster was a member of the American National Dental Association; in 1959 he was given a life membership. He also was a member of the District Dental Association, which paid special tribute to him in 1955 for 50 years of continuous service in Opp and presented him with a handsomely engraved silver tray. He was an active alumnus of Emory University.
He was a charter member of the Opp Rotary Club, served 19 years as a member of the Opp City Council and served as a member of the City School Board. He was a member of the Board of Deacons, First Baptist Church from 1908 until his death, and he was active in the Men’s Sunday School Class. He served as Chairman of the Committee to raise funds for a pipe organ, which was installed for the first service in the new Baptist Church. He was a member of the Mizell Memorial Hospital Board of Directors.
Dr. Foster will always be remembered for his unfailing interest in the people of Opp, his many acts of kindness to his fellow man, and his interest in and support of numerous worthwhile projects for this town and this area. During his practice of dentistry for 56 years, he was always concerned about others; he was never known to turn away a patient who lacked funds to pay him; he did his work on faith and trust and held the same regard for non-paying patients as for those who paid.
Dr. Foster, a thoughtful, gentle, and dignified man, was a devoted husband, an understanding father, and a sincere neighbor. He was a great family man, a man of the Lord, kind and true. To know him was to love him; to name him was to praise him. The memory of such a life inspires and challenges all who knew him. “He was truly a workman of God, who needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.
