Mayhew Yale Foster Collection of Greenough Park Photographs, circa 1890-1919

Mayhew Yale “Bo” Foster was born October 9, 1911 in Richmond, Virginia. As a child, he spent his summers on his family’s ranch near Glacier National Park in Montana. Foster graduated from Yale University in 1933 before hitchhiking back to Montana during the Great Depression. Once in Montana, Foster found a job working for the U.S Forest Service. In Missoula, Montana, he met Virginia Walters, a member of Missoula’s well-known Greenough Family and Tennessee Greenough’s great-niece. The couple married in 1940. The Fosters lived in the guest cottage of the Greenough Mansion following their marriage and had one child named Susan. During World War II, Foster was a Brigadier General and Army Pilot who was awarded the Silver Star for his involvement in “Riviera D-Day” in France. After the war, Foster is credited with starting Missoula’s first National Guard Unit, the 443rd Field Artillery Battalion. Foster died on March 21, 2011 in Missoula.