Frank B. Foster III

Frank B. Foster, III, 89, of Birchrunville, Pa., passed away peacefully at home on March 9, 2024, with his family beside him. Frank had battled dementia late in his life. Born May 30, 1934, in Philadelphia, Pa., he was a son of the late Frank Brisbin Foster, Jr., and Marion Reed (Keator) Foster.

Frank grew up in Phoenixville, Pa., and Fairfield, Conn. He attended Hopkins Grammar School and Yale University, in New Haven, Conn. After serving honorably in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps in Germany, he began a career in business. In 1958, he joined his father’s glass bottle manufacturing company, Diamond Glass, in Royersford, Pa., becoming director in 1972 and President and Chief Executive Officer in 1976. In 1983, he became Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bathurst, Inc., successfully leading the company, the many acquisitions that followed, and the company’s initial public offering. His career in the glass bottle industry also included serving as Chairman and then Trustee of the Glass Packaging Institute. After his “retirement", he founded and served as Chairman of DBH Associates, a venture capital consulting firm. 

Service to others was a defining aspect Frank’s life. He served as director on numerous boards over the course of his career and into his retirement, including 1838 Investment Advisors Group, Affinity Biotech, Airgas, Inc., Contour Packaging Corporation, FinCom Corporation, Fragrance Impressions Limited, OAO Technology Solutions, Inc., National Welders Supply Company, Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, and the U.S. Precision Glass Company.

Frank was an avid golfer. Stonewall Links, in Elverson, Pa., which he helped co-found and where he served as the Tournament Chairman for the 2016 United States Golf Association Middle-Amateur Championship, was a very special place to him. He also belonged to numerous other clubs over the course of his life, including Pine Valley Golf Club, Ardsley Country Club, Bloody Point Golf Club, Cruden Bay Golf Club (Scotland), Haig Point Club, Melrose Golf Club, Phoenixville Country Club, and Whitford Country Club. He was forever teased for having as many golf club associations as clubs in his bag! Frank was also a compulsive paddle tennis player until his knees and back suggested otherwise. Reading was another love, and Terry’s and his passion for travel took them to all seven continents and over a hundred countries. From 1990-2023, Frank and Terry spent winters in their former home on Daufuskie Island, S.C.

Frank’s was a remarkable life defined by business, service, philanthropy and his various passions, but what was most central to him was his family. He was the beloved husband for 62 years of Terry (Alcorn) Foster of Suffield, Conn; the loving father of Timothy Wells Foster and his wife, Stephanie (Macdonald) Foster, of Brunswick, Maine, and Susan (Foster) Garton and her husband, Kelly Warren Garton, of Bethesda, Maryland; grandfather of Dakota Campbell Foster, Reed Alcorn Foster, Haley Wells Garton and Ian Hatheway Garton; and brother of Mark Wingate Foster of Washington, D.C. He was predeceased by sister Carolyn (Foster) McNaught, of New Canaan, Conn. and Falmouth, Mass. He taught his children and grandchildren to prioritize one’s education, which shouldn’t be confined to the classroom but should be the result of exploration and shared experiences with others. We will miss his brilliant counsel and clear-minded thinking, his humility and down-to-earth nature, and his sense of humor and ability to tell a good story. But most of all, we will miss his love and his commitment to his family.

Services will be private. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Daufuskie Island Historical Foundation at https://daufuskiemuseum.org/product-category/donation/ or (843) 384-6363.