ALUMNI FOCUS: A DIVERSE DEGREE Retired President
Charles Foster
SBC CORP. San Antonio
When it comes to telecommunications, Charles Foster (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1961) has just about seen it all. He got into the industry at a time before rotary phones had saturated the country and now enjoys the fruits of his labors with the modern marvels of today’s technology. Funny thing is, it was a simple twist of fate that got him in the industry in the first place. Having served in the military, married while still in college and supporting a wife and baby, Foster had come to the end of his senior year at OU in 1961. He pondered the possibility of continuing his education through graduate school, but his wife felt the time was right for him to enter the full-time job force and start making some money. It was common practice at that time for employers to conduct on-campus interviews inside Felgar Hall, where students could sign up for the companies where they had an interest in working. While standing in the hallway during the process, a door opened and out walked the representative from Southwestern Bell, a company with which he had no interest. After a short chat, the Bell representative asked Foster to visit more, which sent him home to his family interested in the possibility of working there. Looking back, Foster strongly believes fate has a more powerful pull than the best laid plans of men. Shortly after the interview, he began his career with the phone company in Oklahoma City as a staff assistant. Forty years later, he had become one of the company’s most valuable officers, serving as president of SBC operations for SBC Communications Inc. Along the way, the Foster family made a number of moves geographically while Charles continued to serve important roles for SBC. He also oversaw the operations of several aspects of the corporation, including wireless, Yellow Pages and foreign offices. With the wealth of experience he has tucked away, Foster can finally look back in awe at all the advancements his company and industry provided since 1961. “The improvement in the quality of technology was not so surprising when I was working in the middle of it,” said Foster. “When you’re doing it every day – and this kind of technology takes a long time to produce – it’s just part of the process. “But now I am amazed at what has occurred in the past 30 or 40 years.” It may just be that the next 30 or 40 years also will have the Foster name stamped on the telecommunications industry as Patrick Foster, Charles’ son, has joined his father’s company and works in the regulatory side of the business. The fate of 46 years still is going strong.
university of oklahoma college of engineering
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