James H. Foster, 75, a Germantown business owner, newspaper publisher and community activist who three times ran unsuccessfully for public office, died July 17 of a stroke at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
For nearly four decades, Mr. Foster had repaired, restored and sold vintage automobiles in a shop, first in Palmyra, N.J., and after 1995 at Johnson and Cherokee streets in Germantown. After relocating his business, he became active in community affairs and began to submit opinion columns to local newspapers, focusing on issues he felt needed to be addressed, among them the misuse of public funds.
During this period he joined several community organizations, and for a time had been a board member of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, serving on both its Executive and Financial Oversight committees.
In 2009, after two community newspapers serving Germantown and Mt. Airy went out of business, he founded the Germantown Chronicle and the Northwest Independent, ultimately combining both into the Independent Voice covering Northwest Philadelphia. The newspapers gave Mr. Foster a more effective medium to champion the causes he advocated.
Not content simply to argue for change, he ran as an Independent unsuccessfully for City Council against Donna Reed Miller and for Congress against Chaka Fattah in 2012. Last year he ran against Democrat Jim Kenney and Republican Melissa Murray Bailey in the mayoral election.
To his newspaper editorials, Mr. Foster added a call-in show discussing local politics on WURD-AM radio from 2013 to 2014.
Mr. Foster had received many awards for his community work, including the Men Making a Difference Award of the American Cities Foundation, the Progress Through Partnership Award of West Mt. Airy Neighbors, and the Malcolm X Award sponsored by Congressman Chaka Fattah.
Born in Philadelphia, he was a graduate of St. Therese Parish School and Cardinal Dougherty High School. He interrupted his college studies at what is now La Salle University for two years of service in the Marines. After graduating from La Salle in 1966, he worked for a time as a lending officer for First Pennsylvania Bank.
He is survived by a brother and four sisters. Mr. Foster’s wife, the former Cora Christina Warfield, died in 2012.
A memorial service was held July 22 at the Urban Funeral Home in Ambler. – WF
