University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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He became, successively, a doctor of dental surgery and a doctor of medicine, althougli he chose to adopt the former profession as his life ' s vocation, and in this he shone re- vsplendent throughout his long years of humanly beneficial endeavor. Dr. Foster was married in eighteen hundred and fifty-six, at West Chester, Pa., to Miss Anna E. Green, and of this union his widow, his son (Dr. William G. Foster, who has succeeded his father as Dean of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery) and his daugh- ter (Miss Isabel Foster) sui ' vive. He was always regarded among the other members of his profession as one of its lead- ers. His earnest, consistent, patient and studiousty expert ministrations and expositions brought to him that recognition of his fellows which he so well merited, and he was honored in many ways, such as his colleagues, in expression of their eminent esteem, could bestow. Upon the organization of the Maryland Dental College of Baltimore, in eighteen hun- dred and seventy-three. Dr. Foster was elected to its professorship of dental mechanism and metallurgy, and he remained in that chair until eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, the Maryland Dental College then being consolidated with the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Thereupon the latter institution conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery and elevated him to its professorship of pathology and thera- peutics, in which Chair he continued throughout his life. In eighteen hundred and ninety-four, upon the demise of Dr. R. B. Winder, Dean of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Dr. Foster was selected to succeed him, and so endured until his departure hence. Those extended years of his incvimbency all attest the true worth and value of the man. ■ - r ■ During that period Dr. Foster was uninterruptedly in close association with the lead- ers of thought among the members of his profession, and the benefit of all the knowledge

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- XiV Dr. Matthew Whilldin Foster Dr. Matthew Whilldin Foster, Dean of the Baltimore t ' olleg-e of Dental Surgery for more than twenty years, was called to the bosom of liis fathers on the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and fourteen. Plis passage hence was marked by that same calm and serene fortitude and philosophic resignation which characterized his earthly existence and which marked him as a real man among men. The seventeenth day of May, eighteen hundred and thirty-se -en, at the City of Phila- delphia witnessed his advent into this life, and thence, until his departure, during his many useful years of understanding, original discretion and incentive, he perfonned his mis- sion in such manner as to leave behind him a name that is, and for a long time shall be, revered and honored and remain a fitting example of emulation not only among the mem- bers of his chosen pjrofession, but equally as well among all those members of the human family in general whose privilege it was to be brought into contact and into association with him. His early training in things mundane matters not. Sufficient is it for us to know that he received in schools and colleges that degree of ]ireliminary education liest calculated to develope and to fix his broad intelligence and liis keen and incisive intellect, which were always, vmto the end, such an ever-present and inseparable part and such a dominatingly evident characteristic of the man.

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gleaned from this pleasant intercourse was widely disseminated by him throu.s;h ' the me- dium of the many students whose rare privilege it was to learn from him. He was rej eatedly honored by those members of his i)rofession, and he was honored and wonderfully respected by those students. He was twice president of the National Dental Association, and represented that Asso- ciation as a delegate at the International Dental Congress in Paris and the International Dental Federation at Stockholm, and he was one of the organizers of the Notional Associa- tion of Dental Faculties. He was also a member and at one time president of the Mary- hmd State Dental Association, as well as an honorary member of the New Jersey State Dental Society. Men in evei-y (|uarter of the globe, ]iraetiitoners of dental surgery, whose early steps in dental knowledge were guided by him, whose subsequent and successive ste]3s of advance- ment were steadied and directed by him to completion, all hold warm and glowing spots in their hearts, wherein the name of Dean Foster is en.shrined. He was a kindly, courteous gentleman of the old school. Kver upi-ight and honest, over fair and s npathetic, always affable anc ' congenial in his relationships between man and man, and between the teacher and the scholar, Dr. Fostei ' won the unalloyed and undy- ing friendshi]) of all who knew him. His grey hairs have descended into the grave full of honor. His record is one brim- full of achievement and of duty well and nobly done. His monuments ai ' e many, all more lasting than marble and granite, upon which his name is imperishably carved in the golden letters of friendship, and his fame will live forever in the annals of his belo -ed school. To the memory of this man — Dean Foster — the stiadents of the Baltimore ' Oollege of Dental Surgery do now, silently, devoutly and sorrowfully (jay homage! 8