J. Fagg Foster Papers

John Fagg Foster was born on September 6, 1907 in Blue Ridge, Texas. He seldom used his first given name, and was known throughout his long career as J. Fagg Foster. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1935 from East Texas Teachers College, and earned a master’s in education from the University of Texas in 1938.

He was teaching at the University of Texas in 1941 when he became involved in a controversy over academic freedom. He and another colleague attended an anti-Fair Labor Standards Act rally and asked to speak in favor of the Act. Politics intruded, and both Foster and his friend were fired. The President of the university, Dr. Home Price Rainey, defended the two professors’ right to speak publicly, and he was also fired.

Foster moved to Ohio to teach at Kenyon College. There he was chosen by the Federal Housing Authority in Cleveland to be an economist, and served in the Office of Economic Warfare before enlisting in the Army during World War II. After the war he finished his PhD at the University of Texas before joining the faculty at the University of Denver in 1946. Between that time and his retirement in June, 1976, he taught and became a well-known speaker and economic thinker. In 1951-52, he took a leave of absence from the University of Denver to serve as Director of Industrial Relations Analysis for the Federal Wage Stabilization Board, Region 11. After he returned to the University, he continued to consult for business and government entities.

Foster had one daughter by his first marriage. He married Gladys Parker on August 23, 1950. They raised three children. He established the Fagg Foster Scholarship Fund in the Economics Department of the University of Denver. Foster developed lung disease in his later years and died in July 1985.