Robert Foster
Robert Foster

Sunapee, N.H. — Robert (Bob) Russell Foster, MD, of Winchester, Mass., and Sunapee, died on Thursday, April 19, 2018, due to complications from Parkinson’s. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, June 9 at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Gould Road, New London with a reception to follow.

Bob was born July 22, 1937, in Cambridge, Mass., to Margaret Persons Foster and LeBaron Russell Foster of Princeton, N.J. He attended the Lawrenceville School before going to Harvard University. While pursuing his undergraduate degree in biochemistry, he wrestled and played football, becoming a Phi Beta Kappa scholar and receiving the William J. Bingham Award for the outstanding athlete and leader of the senior class. He was later inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame for wrestling.

After Harvard Medical School and one year of residency in orthopedics at Roosevelt Hospital in New York, Bob married Laura Beth Mason of Seattle, Wash. He then joined the Air Force and was stationed at the Academy in Colorado Springs. After completing medical training at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Bob moved to Winchester to raise a family. He built a private practice, working at Symmes Hospital in Arlington, and at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge where he served as Chief of Orthopedics for 20 years, retiring in 2002. He then made his permanent home in Sunapee.

Retirement saw Bob pursuing renewed interest in golf and investing in new passions including photography, musicology and wildflowers. Bob was by nature a gifted student who pursued academic, athletic, and intellectual endeavors with characteristic discipline, focus and rigor. He loved jazz, played it often, and enjoyed sharing and discussing it with friends, family and the occasional stranger.

Bob is survived by his wife Laura Beth of 52 years; two sons, Jeffrey (Valerie) Foster of Flagstaff, Ariz. and Campbell (Elizabeth) Foster of Lafayette, Calif.; two grandchildren, Makena, and Kiana; two grandchildren Lindsay and Tate; and brother Peter (Marbie) Foster of Bangor, Maine. His brother Warren William Foster of Atwater, Calif., predeceased him.

Memorial contributions may be made to The Fells, P.O. Box 276, Newbury, NH 03255; or Lake Sunapee Protective Association, 63 Main Street, Sunapee, NH 03782.

To sign an online guestbook please visit www.chadwickfuneralservice.com.