WATERVILLE – Herb Foster, 83, of Waterville, passed away peacefully at home on June 1, 2021 with his family by his side.

Born in Waterville on Sept. 15, 1937, he was the only child of Donald and Irene Viens Foster, both deceased. Herb had a migratory childhood as his parents were in the hotel business. He received his early education in Greenfield, Mass., was a Boy Scout and active in the YMCA. He graduated Cum Laude from Deerfield Academy in 1956 and from Middlebury College in 1960, where he majored in Russian. He later received the Diplôme de Langue et de Français Parlé, Mention Honorable, at the Alliance Française in Paris, France. Following his year abroad he taught foreign languages in Central Maine schools for 20 years.

In 1972 Herb married Nancy Pellerin Craig of Fairfield and together they shared 48 wonderful, often exciting, years together. Herb left teaching in 1979 when he and Nancy bought Wonderview Cottages in Belfast. His return to the hospitality industry as an adult was a dream come true. After 17 fulfilling years, they sold the cottages, and Herb returned briefly to teaching, retiring in 2002.

Herb was active in community affairs, serving as an Assistant Director of American Legion Boy’s State, Chairman of the Waterville Republican Committee, a member of the Waterville Bicentennial Committee and Chairman of the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce. He was a 56-year member of the Waterville BPOElks #905, and served as Exalted Ruler in 1975.

He was a regular communicant of Corpus Christi Parish, serving on two parish committees. Perhaps his favorite organization was the Waterville-Kotlas Sister City Connection, where he served several terms as chairman. Herb taught conversational Russian at its Annual Sampler held at Colby College, finally giving him a chance to use his college major!

Herb was blessed with many interests that contributed to a full and happy life. He and Nancy especially enjoyed gardening together. In college he played competitive bridge, and was proud to have accumulated partial master points while there. He was always ready for a card game, either at the Elks or with Nancy every evening before supper. He liked any kind of puzzle, particularly the New York Times crosswords, which provided him a great deal of enjoyment in his final year. He loved birding, an interest dating back to his Boy Scout days and in his later years, compiled a life-list of nearly 500 species.

He was an inveterate scrapbooker. To Herb, memories were very precious, and he had thousands of pictures, articles and memorabilia which he made into albums for his children and grandchildren. May they enjoy them as much as he did, especially in his last year. In retirement he became interested in genealogy, and spent many hours looking into his deep New England roots. His research found that through his father he was descended from two governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and through his mother, from two survivors of the Stebbins family who were captured in the Raid on Deerfield, Mass, in 1704. He belonged to the Taconnet Falls Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society, and enjoyed many hours working on his family tree.

Travelling was a big part of Herb’s life, and Nancy quickly embraced it. He made over two dozen trips abroad, visiting at least 40 countries, many of those in depth. He once calculated that he had spent almost four years of his life outside the continental United States. Some trips were exciting, like finding himself in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1968 when the Russian army briefly invaded that area. (He thought it a bad idea to practice his Russian under those circumstances). But most were pleasurable, especially the six winters he and Nancy spent in Ajijic, Mexico. Often, travelling was combined with birding.

Herb was a passionate and avid hiker, another hold-over from the Boy Scouts. He climbed his first New England 4000’er at the age 12 in 1949, and from then on he was hooked. At the time of his death, he had hiked 600 listed New England peaks and another dozen or so around the world. He hiked all 452 peaks over 3000 feet in New England (more than half of them bushwhacks) and the 100 highest New England peaks by prominence. He also finished Vermont’s Long Trail from end to end in 2008. He hiked his last peak at the age of 82.

Succumbing to pancreatic cancer in the middle of a global pandemic was not how Herb chose to write the final chapter of his life. Yet, living in a “bubble of two” with Nancy created a certain closeness that’s often missing, even after a long marriage. For 15 months Herb missed spending time with his children and grandchildren. Luckily, due to the lifting of COVID restrictions, he was able to spend his last two weeks with his family. Knowing that he had a very limited time to live gave him the incentive to finish the many scrapbooking projects that he’d been putting off for years. He still considered himself one of the luckiest persons in the world to have experienced all that he did – a wonderful life with Nancy, a family that made him very proud, two careers that he loved, so many interests and the good health to enjoy them for 82 years.

Herb is survived by his loving wife, Nancy; his beloved sons Benjamin Foster and wife Hope of Normal, Ill. and their children, Delano, Olivia Rose and Staeliam Schipper-Reyes; Jeremy and his wife Stefanie of Topsham, and their children Annie and Sawyer; his stepson, Marc Craig and husband Keju Ma of Victoria, BC; and several cousins.

A funeral Mass will be held at Notre Dame church in Waterville on Thursday, June 10 at 10 a.m. followed by internment at Pine Grove Cemetery and a reception at the Waterville Elks Lodge.

Condolences may be forwarded to Herb’s family through the Kotlas Connection at P.O. Box 1747, Waterville, ME 04903.

In lieu of donations to one’s favorite charity, Herb would like to see people make the more important donation of time, by volunteering to help organizations which are dedicated to making the world a better place. He would specifically like to see someone volunteer to take his place on the Kotlas Connection board of directors. The Connection, http://www.kotlas.org, is an international organization dedicated to promoting people-to-people diplomacy around the world. Membership is rewarding and often a great deal of fun.

Copy the Story Link