News: Neillsville - Foster's Eye Care in Business for a Century (2023)
Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail:
dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Foster, Dietsche, Melcher, Olson, Bergemann, Thompson, Bush, Doyle
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 3/15/2023
Foster's Eye Care enters a Century in Business (2023)
By Edward DuBois
In 2023, Foster’s Primary Eye Care of Neillsville celebrated being open for a
century.
Dr. Martha A. Foster was the first of three generations of optometrists in the
Foster family. Martha Foster was licensed to practice in 1922. Her first
practice was established in Black River Falls that same year. She grew up on a
family dairy farm in Bloomer as Martha Dietsche. She married a WWI veteran, Leo
W. Foster.
“Martha was the second woman in Wisconsin to be licensed as an optometrist and
was truly an inspiration to young women she encountered in her practice and
everyday life,” Gregory A. Foster of Foster Primary Eye Care in Black River
Falls said.
She also inspired her son and grandson. The couple had one child, John W.
Foster, who followed in his mother’s footsteps and began his practice of
optometry in 1953. John and his wife, Dolores, had five boys and Gregory
A. Foster took up the family business and started his practice in 1980.
Martha Foster practiced in Black River Falls from 1922 until 1937 when Leo and
Martha moved to Neillsville.
Martha established her office in an upstairs location in the Zimmerman Building
in downtown Neillsville.
Eventually the office was the present location on the corner of Court and Fifth
streets.
Leo Foster’s family planted roots in Neillsville in the 1880’s when his parents,
John and Barbara, moved from Jefferson to manage the Farmer’s Hotel. John and
Barbara were the children of German immigrants and John’s father had taught him
brewing skills that found him also working in the Neillsville Brewery. John and
Barbara moved to La Crosse in the early 1890’s to take over the management of
the Vader Rheine Hotel. Leo was born in La Crosse.
Martha opened a satellite office in Thorp and after her son, John, was licensed
he took over that practice and eventually opened a new satellite in downtown
Owen.
In 1964 Martha was battling breast cancer that had spread to other areas in her
body. Facing the ultimate end of her life she openly worried who would take care
of her patients. John reassured her he would take care of them.
John saw patients in four locations: Thorp, Neillsville, Owen and a satellite
Martha had in Augusta. That got to be too much for him and in November of 1964
John sold the Thorp practice to Michael Melcher, O.D. and moved his family to
Neillsville.
John took over the Neillsville office and eventually closed the satellite office
in Augusta.
Greg was a fourth grader at the time and transferred to St. Mary’s Catholic
School. Greg joined his father in practice in Neillsville in 1980 after
graduating second in his class from Pacific University College of Optometry.
Dr. Greg was offered a position at the Midelfort Clinic (now Mayo) in Eau Claire
and the Medical Eye Clinic of Eau Claire (now Chippewa Valley Eye Clinic) but
decided to practice and raise his young family in Neillsville.
The Neillsville office at that time had a large number of families from the
Black River Falls area and in 1982
Greg bought out a small practice of Vernon Olson, O.D. in downtown Black River
Falls. Dr. Greg incorporated the two offices under the name of Foster Primary
Eye Care, Ltd. in 2009.
The history of the practice in Neillsville is from 1937 continuously to present
day, a total of 85 years. The history in Black River Falls is from 1922 to 1937
and 1982 to present day, a total of 55 years. The Foster family has been
providing eye care in central Wisconsin from 1922 to present day, a total of 100
years.
The Fosters have also tried to help their community and customers in whatever
ways they could.
The Fosters have always participated as providers in Wisconsin Medicaid despite
advice from practice management experts that reimbursements are below the cost
of delivering the care. Commitment to helping the poor, elderly and disabled has
been an important tenant of all three generations of doctors.
Martha Foster was a member of the Auxiliary to the American Legion, Business and
Professional Women, and other organizations.
John Foster was a member of the Neillsville Lions Club, Neillsville Chamber of
Commerce, and other organizations.
Greg was a member of Neillsville Lions Club, Neillsville Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors, and other organizations.
Martha Foster’s husband, Leo W., served as the Mayor of Neillsville in the
1950’s.
At the invitation of John Bergemann, Sr., the CEO of Memorial Medical Center,
Greg Foster began seeing patients at Neillsville Memorial Nursing Home one day
per month. This involved the purchase of portable equipment and taking the time
to set up and take down on the first Monday of every month from 1982 until the
nursing home closed recently.
Greg joined in Memorial Medical Center efforts to provide free health screenings
to the uninsured and under insured, and many times spoke to Neillsville High
School physics classes about optics and eye care at the invitation of the
teacher, Mr. Bill Penker.
Greg and his wife, Linda, have participated in volunteer eye care missions to
central Mexico.
He has also served as the President of the Wisconsin Optometric Association. In
his time the Association passed key legislation to allow optometrists to treat
primary eye diseases with appropriate topical and oral medications.
Greg was appointed by Governor Tommy Thompson to serve on a task force comprised
of physicians, clinic administrators, insurance representatives and other
interested parties to explore the possibility of a Universal Health Care System
for state residents as an alternative to the proposals of the Clinton
Administration.
Greg Foster, with other representatives of the American Optometric Association,
met with Gov. Thompson in Washington, D.C. when Thompson was appointed as
Secretary of Health and Human Services by President George W. Bush. The
association presented concerns in access to care for patients in the Medicare
and Medicaid systems of health care.
Greg was appointed by Governor Jim Doyle to the Optometry Examining Board in
2004. Governor Scott Walker continued this appointment and Greg Foster served as
Chairman of the Board for six of the eight years of service.
Greg served on the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry which was
comprised of representatives of regulatory boards from all 50 states and some
provinces of Canada. He was appointed to lead a committee that had oversight of
the National Board of Examiners in Optometry who develops and administers
National Board Examinations for licensure in the U.S. Dr. Foster over three
years traveled to Charlotte, NC to meet with test developers and offered ideas
for improvements for testing clinical competence.
Greg and Linda Foster led a total of 10 lobbying trips to Washington, D.C. with
other Wisconsin optometrists to meet with the two senators and all Wisconsin
U.S. Representatives to discuss patient access to health care and to direct more
of the funding already approved for the National Institute of Health toward
research in macular degeneration and other debilitating eye diseases at the
National Eye Institute.
Greg is the founder and served for two years as the first president of Vision
U.S.A.–The Wisconsin Project, Inc.
This was a charity formed by the Wisconsin Optometric Association to provide
free eye care and eye wear to the uninsured and underinsured children in
Wisconsin.
Greg served as president of Practice Management Incorporated for two years. This
subsidiary of the Wisconsin Optometric Association facilitated the transition
from traditional optometry into the medical eye care model that is practiced
today.
There are many devoted employees that have worked for the Fosters and some for
multiple decades. They are best remembered for being great advocates for our
cherished patients.
“There are too many to mention but we consider ourselves blessed,” Greg Foster
said.
Linda Foster has served the longest of all team members. She has 40 years of
experience in the two offices and prior to that worked in the Eye Clinic at
Pacific University College of Optometry while Greg was in his last four years of
college.
“We are hoping to take on a new doctor or doctors in the near future to
transition the practices,” Foster said.
Contrary to the many rumors in a small town, Greg Foster has not made plans to
retire.
“We strive to put the best available optical products on our patient’s eyes,”
Greg Foster said.
Greg worked in the camera and stereo department of a variety store in college.
High quality optics in camera products was always a priority.
“Example: Take Nikon cameras,” Greg Foster said. “What our store offered was a
Nikon Camera with Nikon lenses. A large box store down the street offered in
their ads Nikon cameras for less.
“The lenses they sold with the camera back were a generic brand that fit the
camera but were not Nikon brand lenses.
“Yet the lens technology of the day was led by Nikon and other brand names. You
buy a Nikon camera for the optics. The advanced curvatures of the lens elements
and the lens coatings make all the difference. To the untrained eye looking
through the sample cameras in the store will look the same.
“However, the photographic results are very telling. The more advanced lens
takes better photos in low light, freezes action photos better by allowing fast
shutter speeds, has fewer peripheral distortions by controlling aberrations
common to less advanced lenses, and more.
“Hunters understand the difference in optics in rifle scopes and binoculars. In
the eye wear world similar differences exist.
“We use only the top rated lens products and only trust the laboratories that
surface and edge them that have been certified by the lens manufacturers.
“Is this more expensive? Yes. Would the doctors use anything less on their own
eyes or their spouses or their mothers? No. The most sophisticated optical
instrument on the planet, the human eye, deserves no less.”
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