Pauline Poole Foster, 94, counselor and educator
Pauline Poole Foster, 94, the retired director of counseling for the Lower Merion School District, died Aug. 28, of heart failure at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr, where she had lived for 17 years.
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Pauline Poole Foster, 94, the retired director of counseling for the Lower Merion School District, died Aug. 28, of heart failure at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr, where she had lived for 17 years.
Dr. Foster grew up in West Long Branch, Monmouth County, the youngest of eight children of Albert and Bessie Covert Brown Poole.
She graduated from high school at age 15 and majored in mathematics at Monmouth College (now Monmouth University), also in West Long Branch.
After graduating from college, Dr. Foster became a math teacher at Manasquan High School, where she was only two years older than her most senior students.
Students there were so impressed with her kindness and teaching ability that she had a standing invitation to attend high school reunions, her family wrote in a tribute.
Dr. Foster met future husband Donald E. Foster in a graduate calculus class. The two married in 1947, and moved to Merion.
In 1965, she took a job teaching seventh-grade mathematics at Bala Cynwyd Junior High School.
"Pauline tried to inspire her students to see the beauty and the fun in math," her family wrote.
However, after witnessing how students' personal problems often interfered with learning, Dr. Foster decided to become a guidance counselor.
She earned a master's degree in counseling from Villanova University in 1969, and became the guidance counselor at Bala Cynwyd Junior High, now Bala Cynwyd Middle School.
When a Lower Merion High School student committed suicide in 1986, upperclassmen asked for their junior high school counselor.
"She spent three days at the high school counseling approximately 50 students, helping them to deal with their grief, guilt and fear," the family wrote.
In 1986, the school district created a department of counseling under Dr. Foster's leadership. She hired guidance counselors for the district's elementary schools and introduced a type of counseling that emphasized listening to personal problems, as well as help with academics, standardized tests, and college admissions.
In 1984, Dr. Foster earned a doctorate in education history at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation told of 19th-century Philadelphia Quaker physician Ann Preston, the first female professor and dean at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Foster was a visiting lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.
After retiring from the school district in 1989, Dr. Foster enjoyed singing with the Sentimental Journey Jazz Quartet and a big band in Wilmington.
Her husband died in 1995. Four years later, she moved to Beaumont, where she enjoyed visits with family, playing bridge and reading.
She is survived by a daughter, Kathy Foster Singer; a son, Michael John Foster; and two grandchildren.
A memorial service was held on Sept. 6.
Contributions may be made to the Beaumont Staff Scholarship Fund, c/o Joe Peduzzi, Beaumont at Bryn Mawr, 601 N. Ithan Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.
610-313-8102