Mr. Edward A. Foehl Jr.Cullum: 26012 Class: 1965 Cadet Company: A2 Date of Birth: May 30, 1942 Date of Death: August 1, 2024 Died in: Vancouver, WA Interred: West Point Cemetery, West Point, NY - View or Post a Eulogy |
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Ed peacefully passed away into Eternal Life at his home in Vancouver, Wash., with his friends at his side. He was a brave American patriot who made the most of every day. Born in Philadelphia, Pa., to Edward and Geneva Foehl, he was their only child. Although Ed from an early age always marched to his own drummer, he was raised to be respectful, resourceful, successful and a self-reliant person by his father, who was a West Point graduate and manager of a naval shipyard, and his mother, who taught elementary school for more than forty years.
In high school, Ed was an accomplished athlete in football, baseball, and basketball (which was his favorite sport, being selected as one of the most outstanding players in the Philadelphia suburbs both in his junior and senior years). His basketball ability drew the attention of a half dozen schools with major programs on the East Coast. However, when West Point expressed an interest, his father prevailed on him to enroll in the Military Academy. After a year at the Manlius Pebble Hill School, a prep school in Syracuse, N.Y., where West Point redshirted many of its candidates, Ed was accepted to West Point, Class of 1965.
While Ed was very capable academically, without extending any undue effort, and a stalwart on the athletic fields, he had limited enthusiasm for some of the military activities. He much preferred to be in the gym, on the court, or on the ballfield, than marching about in parades and military drills. To his good fortune he played on basketball teams coached by the famous Bob Knight, who coached the Army team to second place in the NIT tournament - when that tournament still had many good teams because the NCAA tournament only took the top sixteen teams in the nation.
Upon graduation and the completion of Ranger and Airborne schools, Ed was assigned to a nuclear missile unit in the Washington, DC area. Shortly thereafter he was selected to be the personal aide to a general office headquartered at Fort Meade, Md., a position he held for over two years. On February 1, 1968, just after the Tet Offensive started, Ed, now a captain, took command of an artillery battery in the 25th Infantry Division. This unit was base camped in Cu Chi with missions throughout War Zone C from Saigon to within a few miles of the Cambodian border to the east. Ed was awarded the Silver and Bronze Stars, The Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Army Commendation Medal for his service.
Upon returning from Vietnam, Ed resigned his commission and attended George Washington University where he received an MBA degree. Most importantly, while in Washington he met and married Katie Broberg, who was a daughter of another West Point graduate, and was working as an information officer at NIH. They were married in Washington, DC at the Fort McNair Officers Club on June 13, 1970 - a marriage that lasted for fifty-one years until Katie's death in April 2022. Over the years they lived in various places as Ed took different jobs as: Consultant - Booz Allen and Hamilton (Washington, DC); Thunderbird Car Planning Manager - Ford Motor (Detroit); Financial Planning Manager - First National Bank of Chicago (Chicago); and, Director of Finance - Manufacturers Hanover Bank (NYC). In 1979 they moved to Portland where Ed joined Freightliner Corporation as a financial executive and subsequently was the CFO or CEO of several local companies. In 1991 he started his own company turning around troubled companies in Portland and the Silicon Valley. Although Ed had a successful business career in various industries, business to Ed was much more than a vocation, it was a passion where learning about every new business was a welcomed challenge. During the 1980s Ed also taught corporate finance in the evenings at Portland State University in the MBA program.
As a teenager Ed took up caddying at some of the fashionable country clubs in the Philadelphia area. This experience introduced him to golf, a game he loved to play the rest of his life. In 1995 he joined Desert Mountain Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he spent much of the winter months during the next twenty-five years playing golf. He was also a long time member at various times at Columbia Edgewater Country Club, Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, and Royal Oaks Country Club. He also played golf in most every state in the United States and took many trips to the United Kingdom, often in conjunction with trips to the British Open.
One of Ed's hobbies was collecting stamps of the United States and Canada. This hobby became more of an investment than an avocation, with Ed's collection eventually growing it into one of the largest and most valuable collections in the Northwest.
When Ed and Katie moved to Oregon they resided in Portland until 1998 when they moved to Vancouver, Wash., to avoid Oregon taxes. Having no children they generously donated most of their estate to medical institutions, veterans, and West Point.
God and country were Ed's core beliefs that guided him throughout his life and were instilled in him at an early age by his parents. He lived the West Point motto: "Duty, Honor, Country" - it was the cornerstone of his life. He will be interred alongside his wife, Katie, in a military ceremony at the West Point Cemetery, West Point, NY at a date to be announced in the future.
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