Joe C. Foster, Jr.

The son of Joe C. Foster Sr., and Grace McComb Foster, Joe was born on February 5, 1925, in East Lansing, Michigan. He attended Wabash College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He then served as a Navy officer in the Pacific during World War II. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1949. Joe and Janet Shanks Foster were married on July 6, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois.

He was a partner in the Lansing law firm of Fraser, Trebilcock, Davis and Foster, PC, where he practiced for 51 years. He then became a founding partner in the Foster, Zack, Little, Pasteur and Manning law firm. Joe was active in the community and in professional organizations at the local, national and international levels. He served as President of the Okemos Board of Education, Chairman of the Board of Sparrow Hospital, and President of the American Cancer Society of Ingham County, the Community Nursing Bureau and the Automobile Club of Lansing. He was President of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, on the Governing Board of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and on the Joint Editorial Board for the Uniform Probate Code.

He chaired several sections and committees of the Michigan and American Bar Associations. A writer and frequent speaker on legal subjects, he was selected as one of the “Best Lawyers in America.” He was proud to be a lawyer and often said he was amazed to be paid to do something he enjoyed so much. Family and friends will remember Joe as a man of the highest integrity, a master storyteller and a consummate gentleman.