FOSTER, Robert Richard 1920-1942
FOSTER
Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 3/31/2014 at 23:32:44
[Waterloo Daily Courier, Tuesday, April 14, 1942]
Robert Richard Foster of Waterloo, 21-year-old Royal Canadian air force pilot, was killed Monday when his plane crashed into Georgian Bay near Hope Island, 20 miles from Midland, Ontario, according to an Associated Press dispatch from Midland.
He was the son of Mrs. Mary Foster, 302 Prospect Avenue, Black Hawk County old age pension investigator, was a 1939 graduate of East High School and previously attended Our Lady of Victory Academy and St. Mary's High School.
Word lo the family here said the wreckage of the plane had been located, but the body was not found, giving relatives a faint hope that he might have survived the crash.
A boat was searching the crash area Tuesday forenoon, the family here was told by telephone. Georgian bay is an arm of Lake Huron, lying at the northeasterly side of the lake. Foster was stationed at Camp Boruen.
Foster was a member Of the first civil aeronautics authority school group in Waterloo, and amassed a total of 150 hours of flying time at Chapman airport, where he was a co-owner of a plane.
He enlisted in the Canadian air force at Winnipeg less than a year ago, and last fall was in training in radio and as a bomber crew member.
After graduating from East High School he was employed for about two years in the storeroom of the Rath Packing Company. While in school he had been a Waterloo Daily Courier carrier, salesman.
He was born Dec. 4. 1920, in Waterloo. His father, William O. Foster, now resides at Mason City. He also leaves a sister, Carol Foster, 15, Our Lady of Victory Academy student, and a brother, Theodore Foster, John Deere Tractor Company employe, both of 302 Prospect Avenue.
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[Waterloo Daily Courier, Monday, April 20, 1942, Waterloo, Iowa]The body of Robert Foster 21- year-old Waterloo student pilot in the Royal Canadian air force who lost his life in Georgian Bay April 13, apparently in attempting to swim ashore thru icy water after a forced landing of a land plane near Hope island, has been recovered. The commanding officer of Camp Borden, Ontario, where the youth was stationed, notified his mother, Mrs. Mary A. Foster, 302 Prospect Avenue, by telephone Sunday night.
The body will be returned here with a military escort, and funeral services will be conducted late this week, Mrs. Foster said.Mrs. Foster was told funeral rites would be held at Camp Borden, and that the body would leave by train for Waterloo Tuesday, accompanied by a Canadian army officer. It will be taken to the O'Keefe & Towne funeral home.
The body was found on the island shore by tine lightkeeper and taken to Midland, Ont. The pilot's tunic, helmet and parachute had been recovered from the partly submerged plane by the crew of the S. S. Royalton but no trace of the pilot's body was found unlil Sunday.
A mass for the flier was said in St. John's Catholic church at 7 a. m. Monday.
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[Waterloo Daily Courier, Thursday, April 23, 1942, Waterloo, Iowa]His native land's Stars and Stripes instead of the Union Jack under which he served as a Canadian army flier is being used on the casket at the O'Keefe & Towne funeral home to honor the memory of Robert R. Foster, 21, 302 Prospect avenue, drowned April 13 after his plane was forced down in Georgian Bay. The body arrived here early Thursday. Funeral services will be at 9 a. m. Friday in St. John's Catholic church. A Becker-Chapman post, American Leg-ion, color guard, firing squad and Chaplain C. J. Gunnell will conduct military rilss at the grave in Calvary emetery. A mass service and military rites were conducted Tuesday morning at Camp Borden where Foster had been in training.
Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
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