Eulogy - Part 2 

He was always a bit of a daredevil. Their house was on a hill and his cousin Jill remembers him adapting his favourite toy, Leo, a large lion on 4 wheels, by strapping a plank of wood across it’s base so that he could sit on the lion and 2 of his friends could stand either side as they raced it down the hill scattering unsuspecting pedestrians as they went! 
 
He moved with his parents to Lincolnshire. There he built a tree house in the woods and got the nickname of “Squirrel” because he kept climbing the trees. As a 14 year old boy he could often be found poaching pheasants with his airgun in woods behind their house.
 
They lived in a gate house to a country estate. He always enjoyed fishing from a young age. The smaller fish were transported home and deposited in the bath for a few days before being returned. When the country estate was eventually sold there was an article in the local paper that referred to the lake having flooded at some time because a number of large pike were found in the cellar - in fact there was water in the cellar but it was Bill who had deposited the pike in there as a joke.
 
Whilst in Lincolnshire he had a serious kidney condition which required surgery leaving large scarring to both sides of his body. As children he convinced us that he had got the scars in a shark attack which we believed for many years.
 
He had an adventurous streak and thought nothing of cycling 100 miles in a day to see new sights or visit friends. Pedal power soon turned to motor power when he bought a motorbike and later a frog–eyed Austin Healey Sprite.
 
He had a knack of being able to fix just about anything and studied at Technical College in Maidstone before starting an apprenticeship in engineering at Vickers-Armstrong in Southampton in 1956. He moved with them to their premises in Swindon (the home of the Spitfire in his pictures). 

He met and married my mum, Heather - his first wife - in Swindon in August 1966. 

Music chosen by Nicola

The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams - David Nolan and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Blackbird by Julie Fowlis.

You Can Close Your Eyes by Brooke Fraser.

Chopin Nocturne #1 in B Flat Minor, Chopin Nocturne #6 in G Minor, Chopin Nocturne #8 in D Flat, Chopin Nocturne #10 in A Flat, Debussy's 'Reviere' and Debussy's 'Girl With the Flaxen Hair'.

Lend Me A Bird
"I will lend to you for a while, a bird", He said.   For you to love him while he lives and to mourn for him when he is dead. 

Maybe for twelve or fourteen years, or maybe for two or three.  
 But will you, till I call him back, take care of him for me? 

He'll bring his charms to gladden you and should his stay be brief,  
You'll always have his memories as solace for your grief. 

I cannot promise that he will stay, since all from earth return,  
But there are lessons taught below I want this bird to learn. 
Service 

I've looked the whole world over  in search of teachers true.   
And from the folks that crowd life's land, I have chosen you. 

Now will you give him all your love; nor think the labor vain;   
Nor hate me when I come to take my lovely bird again? 

I fancied that I heard them say, “of course, thy will be done,   
for all the joys this bird will bring, the risk of grief we'll run." 

Will you shelter him with tenderness?   Will you love him while you may? 
 And for the happiness you'll know forever grateful stay? 

But should I call him back much sooner than you've planned;   
Please brave the bitter grief that comes and try to understand. 

If, by your love, you've managed, my wishes to achieve,   
In memory of him you've loved; be thankful; do not grieve. 

Cherish every moment of your feathered charge.   
He filled your home with songs of joy the time he was alive.  
Let not his passing take from you those memories to enjoy. 

"I will lend to you, a Bird", He said, and teach you all you have to do.  
And when I call him back to me, you will know he loved you too. 
(Author Unknown)

Eulogy final part

Since news of him passing we have received touching messages from friends and family near and far. They talk of his good humour, his great nature, his intelligence, engineering expertise and his willingness to help others. He will be fondly remembered and truly missed.

It appears he managed to hide his true age well, with most thinking he was in his 60’s. He’d probably be annoyed that secret is out the bag on the service sheets you are holding.

Many of you have enjoyed learning more about his life from the pictures posted on his memorial site and the ones being shown here today, and have commented that they show a life well lived. We take comfort in knowing he lived a very full life and did exactly as he pleased in his 80 years here.

Earlier this week I received a message from Helen, the daughter of his best childhood friend Tony. She said she had grown up with stories of them on the Lewes Downs where they played with other boys, created mischief and rolled an enormous tyre down the hill into the road. She said her dad was such a peaceful man it was hard for her to believe they were such naughty boys! So I’m assuming it was our Dad being a bad influence. However the Lewes Downs have always remained a special place for Bill and this is where we plan to scatter his ashes next summer.

Eulogy part 7

As Bill’s children, we were often put to good use helping him on his various projects, I lost count how many times I had to pump the break peddle on the red Range Rover when he was changing the break pads. I was going through some old emails last week and have one from him describing how he had been busy trying to remove an engine from the Great Divide Range Rover. Telling me how the bolts were at the back of the engine facing backwards just forward of the bulkhead & were extremely difficult to reach (he sent a pic for illustration). He said he kept dropping the spanner so eventually tied a string to it, but had Erica underneath the car three times to recover it before coming up with that solution.

I replied to him saying he was really filling up the family album with some great pictures - to which he replied “well that’s the problem with having an engineer as a father!”. We’ve spared you from these gems in the ones we
are showing today, although I’m sure some of you would have been very interested in them too.

Jun, Adiksu & Jamal joined Bill in Lakewood after marrying in Singapore. They shared a love of Saturday morning garage sales and various trips back to the UK & France, reconnecting with old school friends, collecting Range Rover parts and more recently importing and exporting guns. Their garden was filled with roses, which were a favorite of Bill’s mum and a little bit of England in Fairman Street.

Most of you here will have your own memories of Bill in the last few years, especially the Land Rover Club members. He told me about the trip you were planning along the Apache Trail in Arizona and of course his many trips to Pick You Parts.

We as a family are very grateful to those of you who visited him over the last few months when we could not be here. It definitely brightened his days and helped him keep his sense of humour. He also appreciated the supply of tea.

Eulogy part 6 - Dawn

Bill and Sabine spent the early part of their marriage in Watford, North London. They shared many memorial travel adventures, in particular a month long trip to Morocco via France & Spain in his red Range Rover, converted for camping. Washing in olive groves on sunny days in Spain and having a roast chicken on Christmas day. He loved being outside in the fresh air.

Bill had always talked about returning to the US and shortly after Erica was born, they moved back to California, settling in Lakewood where he remained.

Erica’s arrival made Bill very happy, to have another daughter. And there is no denying Erica is his daughter! I have been struck by their resemblance in the old photos of him in his 20s - especially the one with him next to the Spitfire... but more than the physical similarities, they both shared a lot in common and of course a love of animals. Erica’s dream of becoming a vet is rooted in the previously mentioned endless injured birds Bill nursed back to life in the kitchen. He has always been proud of Erica (from her dancing, to archery, to color guard, to studies) and no more so than when I showed him the photos of her White Coat ceremony from Veterinary school in September. Its a shared dream of theirs for Erica to become a Vet, and I know she will fulfill that dream in his memory.

Eulogy part 5 - Erica 

As we are here today to celebrate and hear the stories of my dad’s life, I keep thinking about how he has lived such a great adventure and how he was such an amazing storyteller. As a child, I loved hearing his stories before bedtime. I remember telling him that I wanted to write them all down in a book, imagining the chapters would have titles like “The Sheep on a Cliff” or “The Ferret and The Coat”.

I strongly believed he lived by the phrase “anything is possible if you put your mind to it”. If there was an opportunity, he took it. If there wasn’t an opportunity, he would make his own. And it is people who live like that who make for fantastic protagonists. He was my personal hero and although I never wrote that book, I heard those stories enough times to keep them with me forever. I hope that I too can continue to live the way he taught me to. By making opportunities where there are none. By remaining calm in the face of the storm. And by always being willing to lend a helping hand to a friend or anyone else in need.

I would like to read a poem that I found fitting for the occasion. It is called ...

To My Father
By Georgia Harkness
A giant pine, magnificent and old
Stood staunch against the sky and all around
Shed beauty, grace and power.
Within its fold birds safely reared their young.
The velvet ground beneath was gentle,
and the cooling shade gave cheer to passers by.
Its towering arms a landmark stood, erect and unafraid, As if to say, “Fear naught from life’s alarms”.
It fell one day.
Where it had dauntless stood was loneliness and void. But men who passed paid tribute – and said,
“To know this life was good,
It left it’s mark on me. Its work stands fast”.
And so it lives. Such life no bonds can hold –
This giant pine, magnificent and old.

Eulogy part 4

I have fond memories of searching the beaches on the south coast of England with him for fossils and pre-historic shark’s teeth. And he was the inspiration when we set up our own “Cliff Climbing Club”.
 
He had an interest in history and at the weekend he would drag us to see the White Horse carved into the hillside, visits to iron-age burial mounds and the standing stones at Avebury, as well as long walks on the hills and in the woods with our dog.
 
His fascination with wildlife continued throughout his life often taking in injured animals, especially birds. So it was no surprise when one Christmas he brought home a live goose that lived in our garage for about a month then disappeared the week before Christmas. We were young so did not realise it revisited us again on our plates for Christmas Dinner!
 
But my abiding memory is of him working on cars (boy did he love to work on cars!). And I have him to thank for my very first car, a 1965 red MG Midget, with spoked wheels, which I still have sitting in my garage at home to this day. I will remember him fondly every time I drive it.

Eulogy part 3

They soon moved to USA for his first stint there – living in Seattle working for Boeing, then St. Louis (where I was born in 1969) and Los Angeles (first Chula Vista, and then Manhattan Beach) working for McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach. 
 
In August 1971, he took to the air himself on his first solo flight in a Cessna 150 at Torrence Airport. A proud moment for him and a hobby he kept up for many years.
 
Dawn was born in LA in 1971, a year memorable for a 6.5 richter scale earthquake, which caused her cot to move from one side of the landing to another. I'm not sure if it was that, or work, but shortly afterwards (when I was 2 and a half), we all sailed back to the UK - via Acapulco, the Panama Canal, the Caribbean Islands, Miami and Bermuda. Nicola was born the following year in 1973 in Swindon.

There he got a job working on the fabulous Concorde supersonic jet aircraft that could travel faster than the speed of sound, creating a sonic boom as it flew.
 
In 1976 he moved to the McClaren Formula 1 motor racing team, helping James Hunt win the World Championship that year.

He bought his first Range Rover in 1979. The first of very many!! Including his rare 6 wheeler. Some of you will know the spec better than me. 
 
In the 1980s he moved to Marconi Space & Defence: designing, manufacturing and installing Radio Antenna - including at the Government Communication HQ in Cheltenham. Who knows the UK government is probably still using them to listen to our communications all over the world to this day.
 
Holidays were camping in the New Forest where he would build a swing the first night at the campsite, which soon became a magnet to all the kids around. Playing “rounders” (baseball to your Americans) with the other families, he got the nickname “Basher Bill” for hitting home run after home run, and I remember him getting us lost on walks through the forest in search of deer. 
 

Eulogy

Bill Life Story 1939 - 2018

Hello everyone, good morning. 
 
For those of you that don't know me I am Adrian (Bill's son). My sisters Dawn, Nicola Erica and I would like to welcome you today. Although funerals are by their very nature sad affairs we very much wanted this to be a celebration of Bill's interesting life and be thankful on this Thanksgiving weekend. So please bear with us if we reminisce a bit.
 
I will be saying a few words about his early life, then Erica will read a poem before Dawn brings us up to date. Nicola has prepared today’s music and designed the cards that you have with you.
 
Bill was born Cyril George Walter Foster on February 4th 1939 in Caterham-on-Hill, England just south of London. Within 6 months England was at war with Germany and the first 6 years of his life were overshadowed by the hardships of the Second World War. 
 
His father, Cyril Fredrick Foster, was a wireless operator who served at Bletchley Park (the ultra secret British government intelligence centre where the German Enigma encryption machine was cracked). 
 
His mother was Queenie Constance Dorothy - known as “Peggy” to her friends. 
 
He was soon referred to as Bill - alternative names seem to be a bit of a thing in our family! He had an older sister, Lucille and was later joined by a younger brother, David, who died in early childhood.

Bill grew up in Lewes on the south coast of England, where his love of wildlife meant that he often tortured Peggy by keeping bats under his bed (the winged ones, not the wooden kind) as well as playing on the edge of the nearby chalk pits (when he knew that she hated heights).  
 
One day when Peggy was outside chatting to her next door neighbour, she noticed a procession of boys coming up and down the path, but didn't take much notice until she went into her kitchen where she found that they had taken buckets of sand and added water to create their own 'beach.'
 

Flying to Seattle to start a new job at Boeing.six months later returning to UK via an overland road trip from Seattle to NYC visiting Yellowstone seeing the bears and the geysers,then Mount Rushmore and Niagara Falls. On return to USA we drove from Seattle to Los Angeles stopping at Crater Lake and San Fransisco the Giant Redwoods. Over the following years we camped in Death Valley and the Grand Canyon when you could camp near the rim. another road trip from Los Angeles to St Louis Missouri traveling through Arizona and New Mexico. Another move then to C hula Vista going over the border to Mexico then moving to Manhattan Beach LA. Experiencing an earthquake magnitude 6.5. Sailing back to the UK via Acapulco, Panama Canal, Caribbean Islands, Miami and Bermuda. Seeing Concorde testing and visiting Silverstone and Brand Hatch motor circuits to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix from the Pit Lane. More camping trips to The New Forest, France and Kent
Having three wonderful children. All good memories.  RIP Heather

Sending special Love to you all at this very sad time,from Taunton, Somerset.
We have fond memories of a 'funny Uncle Bill' with so many stories to tell.
Never a dull moment in his life.
You are blessed to have all your memories of him to keep close to you all.
Keep strong, Adrian, Dawn, Nicola, Erica and all your families. 
We are thinking of you.

Angie, Steve, Jemma,Darren and Family, Norman and Linda. x


   

Thinking of Uncle Bill and his dear family.

I will always remember us having our deep debates, when you stayed at Mum’s and putting the world to rights. I loved hearing your tales of your visit to the ‘deep south’, as sad as it was to hear, that not much has changed.

Sleep tight Uncle Bill and God bless xxxx

OBITUARY

Bill Foster

February 4, 1939 – October 28, 2018

Stricklin/Snively Mortuary

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