Clarksville, Ark. --- Dr. Buck T. Foster of Clarksville recently donated a framed photograph of his great grandfather, Dr. Marion Ellison Foster, to University of the Ozarks.
Marion Foster was one of two graduates (along with Susie Tankersley) in the Arkansas Cumberland College class of 1893, the first class to graduate from the college. Arkansas Cumberland College opened in Clarksville in 1891 after moving from Cane Hill in Northwest Arkansas. The college would later be renamed The College of the Ozarks in 1921 and then University of the Ozarks in 1987.
Born in 1871 in Ellsworth, Ark. to Civil War veteran John William Foster and Ginerva Jane Plunkett, Marion Foster was the third of seven children. After graduating from Arkansas Cumberland College, he went on to teach at Clarksville Public School for one year before attending Vanderbilt Medical College. Foster returned to Arkansas after earning his medical degree, where he was a well-respected family physician in Paris, Ark., for more than 20 years. He died from heart disease at age 61 on Dec. 26, 1932, just two weeks after his wife of 22 years, Virginia Scott Jamison, passed away.
Buck Foster is a visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas. His great grandfather’s photograph will hang in the lobby of the Mabee Administration Building with other historical photographs.
Dr. Buck T. Foster of Clarksville (left) presents a framed photograph of his great grandfather, Dr. Marion Ellison Foster, to University of the Ozarks President Dr. Rick Niece. Marion Foster was one of two graduates in the first graduating class of Arkansas Cumberland College in 1893.
Topics: Giving