IN MEMORIAM
Foster Lloyd Brown, 86;
Author, SUNY Professor
ONEONTA – Foster Lloyd Brown, SUNY Oneonta professor and best-selling college textbook author, passed away Dec. 1, 2017, at Albany Medical Center, of complications following heart surgery. He was 86.
He was born May 26, 1931, in Wheeling, W.Va., the eldest of three children of Durward B. Brown, a Methodist minister, and Dorothy Rine Brown, an author. Upon graduation from Shinnston High School in 1949, he served in the Navy.
Degrees included a bachelor’s in botany from West Virginia University; a master’s in plant physiology, also from WVU; and a doctorate in statistics from Cornell University, with post-doctoral research at the Imperial College London.
His co-authored book, “Statistical Concepts,” published by Harper & Row, became the world’s best-selling paperback textbook on statistics, according to the publisher.
Teaching was his passion. From 1956 to 1962, he taught biological subjects at Bethany College, in Bethany, W.Va., and anatomy to nursing students for Penn State at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa. While a graduate student at Cornell, he was a senior systems analyst for Cornell’s Computer Center in Ithaca.
In 1964, he became a professor of psychology at SUNY Oneonta, where he taught statistical analysis, measurement, chaos theory, and use of computers in psychology. He also team-taught subjects ranging from music theory to history, literature, and philosophy. Students knew him as an entertaining and kind professor who reassured students on the first day of class that no student who gave their all would fail.
Following retirement in 1995, he taught for another two decades during summers as a professor emeritus, and served as faculty fellow for the college’s computer center. He refused repeated nominations for distinguished teaching awards.
He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather; lover of books, all things science, nature and future, history, bad puns, dancing, scuba diving, chess, Scrabble, music, theater, and Mel Brooks films. He possessed an indefatigable optimism and enthusiasm for learning. He served on several community boards.
He married first Barbara Feather, in 1956, and second Rita Shulman, in 1981. During retirement Foster and Rita enjoyed traveling and being with family, splitting time between Sarasota, Fla. and Oneonta. In Sarasota, he worked with state officials to name and map a lake in his neighborhood: Lake Ibis.
He is survived by his wife, Rita; daughter, Celeste Brown Thomas; son, Wendell Douglas Brown; step-children, Ginny Twersky, Paula Shulman, Emanuel Shulman and Rebecca Friedman; grandson, Charles “Chase” Foster Thomas; step-grandchildren, Michael Twersky, Anna Twersky, Hannah Shulman, Alex Shulman and Michaela Shulman; his brother, David Brown; niece, Laurie Brown; nephew Ahmad Madjlessi; and numerous in-laws.
He was predeceased by his parents; sister, Mary Brown Madjlessi; and his first wife.
He had arranged that his body be given to Albany Medical Center for research.
A celebration of life will be held 1-4 p.m Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018 in the Atrium at Fitzelle Hall at SUNY Oneonta. A private family celebration will follow on Foster’s next birthday, May 26.
Memorial donations may be sent to the SUNY College at Oneonta Foundation, Division of College Advancement, 308 Netzer Administration Bldg, Oneonta, NY 13820, specifying in the memo the “Steven Edelstein Scholarship in Honor of Dr. Foster Brown”; or to the Catskill Symphony Orchestra, or the Community Arts Network of Oneonta.
Visitors are welcome to sign the memory book at http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/fosterbrown/homepage.aspx online