Foster, John Morrill, 1898-1996

Dates

• Existence: 1898 (date of birth) -1996 (date of death) - 1996

Biography

John Morrill "Jack" Foster was born in 1898 into a glass making family. His great grandfather, Joseph P. Foster, founded a short-lived glass works in Stoddard, New Hampshire in 1842. His grandfather, George Foster, founded New Granite Glass Works, also in Stoddard, New Hampshire, in the 1850s or 1860s and entered the glass jobbing trade in the 1870s. And his father, Albert M. Foster, led the family's glass jobbing business and owned and led several glass factories.

Foster graduated from Williams College in 1920 and began working for one of the family's glass factories, Upland Flint Bottle Company, shortly thereafter. After working several years as a traveling salesman, he was elected treasurer of Upland Flint Bottle Co. in 1929. He married Eleanora Lutz in 1932 and had two sons, John J. and Robert L. Foster became president of Foster-Forbes Glass Company (formerly Upland Flint Bottle Co.) after the deaths of Albert M. Foster (1934) and William C. Forbes (1935). He held this position until 1965, when he entered semi-retirement.

Foster served a director and president of the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute in the 1950s. He was also active in his community, maintaining memberships in the Marion, Indiana Rotary Club and the American Legion.

In his retirement, Foster researched the history of his glass making forebears and authored _Old Bottle Foster and His Glass-Making Descendants_. Foster died in 1996.

Bibliography: Foster, John Merrill. _Old Bottle Foster and His Glass-Making Descendants_. Fort Wayne: Keefer Printing Co., 1972.

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