Although many people told him to attempt a career in law, Dr. Howard Foster has been a part of the UB community since earning his doctorate. He has been contributing his knowledge of labor relations and collective bargaining to UB and the Buffalo community for 34 years.
"University life is comfortable and stimulating," said Foster. "I don't know if I would have been happy in a corporate life."
Born in Boston, Mass. on April 9, 1943, Foster attended Boston Latin School, the oldest public high school in the country.
Foster then attended Brandeis University as an undergraduate, where he majored in economics.
"They were important formative years for me. I grew up a lot. I wasn't on campus on weekends because I worked and went home, which, in retrospect, may have been a mistake but it was necessary," said Foster. "I made some friends, met the woman who would become my wife; generally, ordinary things."
Foster did not develop a specific interest in labor relations until the end of his undergraduate years at Brandeis.
"My father ran a small auto supply store and I really didn't know anything about big businesses," said Foster. "I was encouraged by my professor at Brandeis to pursue graduate study at Cornell, which has a school dedicated to labor and labor industries."
Foster describes his role in labor relations as the third party that is brought in to settle disputes over possible contract violations when these disputes cannot be resolved by the initial parties involved.
It was at Cornell that Foster honed his mediation and labor relation skills. Though his initial intention was to use his master's degree to begin a career in human relations, he had developed a deep interest in mediation, which compelled him to continue his education. Foster completed his doctorate after five years, and soon found himself and his growing family in Buffalo.
Foster was on the board of directors of the Faculty Student Association from 1983 to 1992. He occupied the Interim Dean position from 1990 to 1994.
Foster has held the position of the Associate Dean of the School of Management since 1994. Though he aimed to pursue a career in teaching during the early years of his career, Foster lends his expertise primarily as a labor relations consultant and arbitrator of labor disputes.
"Labor relations refer to the relationship between workers and employers, usually in a unionized environment. Though, in recent decades unions have been steadily declining," said Dr. Foster. "I have studied the environment and activities that go along with it. I have studied it at Cornell, taught it for a number of years, and I have written about it directly and indirectly.
Outside of the university, Foster is involved in community affairs; he serves on the board of directors of the Legal Aid Bureaucracy in Buffalo, on the Bureau of Jewish Education and is fairly active in the National Academy of Arbitrators.
The young Foster family that first came to Buffalo has long since matured. While Foster and his wife remain in Buffalo, their two children have moved away and are settled into careers of their own. One is a lawyer in North Carolina, and the other an employee at a pharmaceuticals company in San Francisco.
"I came here with one child and another in the oven. (My wife and I) have long been empty nesters," said Foster. "We keep in touch but I wish they were closer."
To keep busy outside of his career, Foster's interests range from classical concerts, to sports, to fine dining.
"I like cultural things; the theater, classical concerts, and the opera. I like enjoying the talent of others. I like to play bridge and I enjoy fine dining, probably a little too much than is good for me," he said. "I used to like sports, but what has happened in professional sports has become distasteful so I tend not to follow, but I am still a Red Sox fan and UB fan."
Foster said that he is generally satisfied with the path that his life has taken.
"I don't know if I would have done anything dramatically different," he said. "I wouldn't want to change anything except that I wasn't tall enough to be a basketball player."
But despite not being a lawyer, or a basketball player, Foster said he has no regrets about spending his life in Buffalo.
"UB has treated me well," he said. "I have never been seriously tempted to go other places and I have grown to like Buffalo."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
