Patrick Blount Foster

Cremation Rites will be accorded.

Patrick Blount Foster was born January 12, 1943, in Houston, Texas. When he was four his parents, Vivian Esther and Thomas Jay Foster, moved from Houston to Pasadena where his father practiced law.

In 1951 his father died in a car accident making Pat the man of the house at age 8. His childhood summers were spent in Canton, Texas, with his grandmother, Velma Foster, or G-Mom as she was known.

He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. While home for spring break in 1965, Pat needed a date to go to the Houston Petroleum Club to help his friend John Kirchner celebrate his engagement to Bettye. Carolyn was standing outside as he drove past her home, so he stopped and asked her to go with him. That was their first date and the rest is history. They were best friends, husband and wife, and partners in everything from then on.

They married on September 2, 1966, and moved to Austin so that he could continue school. The next spring a greeting from Uncle Sam requested that he join the army. Luckily, he had already aced the exams for the air force and was granted a delayed enlistment. In August of 1967 he enjoyed the accommodations at Lackland Air Force Base. His first orders sent him to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he stayed on as an instructor in the Navigation Aids School and Carolyn taught math at Gulfport East High School.

Hurricane Camile struck the Gulf Coast in August of 1969 destroying most of the coast. With a baby due in 10 days, the night of the hurricane was wisely spent on base. The remaining days before his son Tim’s birth were spent cleaning up the flooded house and fallen pine trees without the aid of electricity or air conditioning. It was unpleasant and Carolyn was miserable.

In January, 1970, his easy life at Keesler came to an end and he spent the next year in Thule, Greenland, with a remote assignment. Immediately upon his return, Pat enrolled at Mississippi Southern and finished his degree in mathematics. Texas Instruments employed Pat in June of 1972 and the family of three, very soon to be four, with daughter Karen, moved to Plano, Texas.

When Pat left Texas Instruments, he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering and started his own business, Foster Manufacturing Company. He applied all his creative talents to making the models that he designed for Carolyn’s math classes. The business kept him busy for the next 25 years.

When Tim and Karen were young, Pat acted as the Medicine Man for both the YMCA Indian Guides and Princesses. His natural showmanship and electrical knowhow delighted and amazed campers as bonfires magically burst to into flame upon his command. He loved every second of it. The love of camping continued long past the normal number of years as he continued on as an “old guide.”

Pat could fix anything and everything. Repairmen were unknown in his house. In the dead of winter, Pat built a laundry room in the house so that his wife wouldn’t have to go into the cold garage to do laundry. To the delight of every child on Armstrong Drive, he built the Great Pumpkin for Halloween and hid “behind the curtain” to be the voice over a microphone. Sadly, there are no full pictures of the Great Pumpkin as Pat was also family photographer.

As Karen and Tim’s worlds expanded, so did Pat and Carolyn’s. Following Tim’s work, they travelled throughout parts of Brazil visiting the rainforest and the beaches and met Tim’s bride, Suzy. They travelled all over the United States, Norway and Germany to see Karen sing in operas by Verdi and Wagner.

Pat enjoyed many things. He attended the opera and the symphony. He loved sailing in the summers on Lake Lewisville. He was an avid competitive shooter and attended the national competition in New Mexico for several years. He enjoyed woodworking and telling a good story.

Pat once said that because his own father died when he was eight, he never knew what a father was supposed to do after that age. We all agree that he figured it out admirably. He never missed a concert, play, game or event for either of his children. He was the family’s cheerleader. He was incredibly proud of his family’s many accomplishments: His wife Carolyn’s work in education and renewed love of the piano; his son Tim’s building of a business and his own love of being a father; his daughter Karen’s career singing opera; his daughter-in-law Suzy, for moving to a new country and thriving as well as being an incredible mother; his granddaughter Lauren’s photography and his granddaughter Sara’s developing art and music.

Pat Foster loved, and was loved.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 11:00 AM at The Church of the Holy Nativity, located at 2200 18th Street, Plano, Texas 75074.

Following will be a committal service at Plano Mutual Cemetery.

A reception will follow the committal service at Ted Dickey Funeral Home, located at 2128 18th Street, Plano, Texas, 75074.

Ted Dickey Funeral Home in Plano, Texas has charge of arrangements.