Photo By Kenneth Wright | Calvin Foster during a project tour with community partners at Success Lake,...... read more read more
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When Calvin Foster accepted a dam operator position at then-Success Dam and Lake in 1973, he didn’t imagine that it would be more than a half century later before his main objective for heading to the reservoir was to deplete its bass population. But something wonderful happened along the way: he found his calling.
About a hundred friends, family members, colleagues and community members gathered for a luncheon at the Porterville Veterans Memorial Building on Nov. 14, to honor Foster upon his retirement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this month, and to thank him for the immeasurable impact he made on their lives and careers over the past five decades.
“He's a special leader who inspired generations of employees,” said Tom Ehrke, who Foster mentored and worked alongside for nearly 20 years.
Ehrke, who now serves as USACE’s South Pacific Division Natural Resource Management Program Manager, described his veteran colleague as a man of purpose and action, but also as an empathetic leader who would not ask anyone to tackle any task that he was not willing to do, or very likely, had already done many times over.
Among the many valuable things Ehrke said he learned from Foster was “the importance of truly caring for all employees.”
For about two hours, park rangers, dam operators, USACE leaders, local farmers and family members testified with humorous and heartfelt anecdotes about how Foster made a meaningful and lasting difference in their lives, their careers and in surrounding communities.
“He is a fixture not only in [USACE], not only in the Sacramento District, but also in this community,” said USACE Sacramento District Commander Col. Chad Caldwell, the 19th district commander Foster served under.
Caldwell recalled how Foster’s unique perspective paid big dividends during the historic 2023 flood event that impacted hundreds of thousands of people in the Central Valley. He said that after years of drought, communication lines between partner agencies needed to be improved to be effective during emergencies, and Foster was the first to realize it.
“It was Calvin who recognized a key opportunity for the district to station people at an emergency operations center in Tulare during the response,” recalled Caldwell, “which immediately improved communication efforts between USACE and our state and local partners.”
Now, every year when the district conducts flood season planning and preparations, those vital partners are part of the process, well in advance of potential flood events.
“And that's what you get when you have a guy with 51 years of experience and someone who has been invested in this community, in this district, and in this collective family,” Caldwell added.
Foster acknowledged that the 2023 floods tested his abilities, as well as his team’s. But because of decades of experience, preparation, and training, they were ready for the relentless winter and spring storms that dumped millions of acre-feet of water across the Central Valley, and into the six reservoirs under his watch.
Foster’s preparation for what would be his final flood readiness test began early in his career as a dam operator, not long after the floods of 1966 that devastated Porterville, about 7 miles downstream of Success Lake.
“When I joined the team seven years after the 1966 flood, that event was still very fresh in the minds of the park manager and some of the dam operators,” Foster recalled.
“They told me what they did, and how it all evolved. I kind of committed that to memory and I researched it so that I and others would be prepared.”
Fortunately, while there were significant floods in the 1980s and ‘90s, a flood event of that magnitude didn’t unfold there again until 2023.
The decades he spent preparing himself, park rangers, dam operators and many others for such an event was time and energy well spent. The historic rainfall and associated snowmelt produced tremendous inflows at Success Lake, Lake Kaweah, and Pine Flat Lake, and helping coordinate massive water releases over days, weeks and months required not just a very particular set of skills, but also a lot of trust downstream.
His reputation as the person to call on the toughest days extended well beyond the district. Farmers and water masters across the region’s agricultural communities grew to know and trust his word and his judgement, and they were among those who gathered to thank him for his service.
“Calvin grew up on a farm, and so he knows about water movements and things like that,” said Porterville dairyman and farmer Tom Barcellos.
“It's been a tremendous honor to know Calvin and his family all these years,” Barcellos added. “They’re great people. Calvin comes from the roots of the farm and his common sense helped him lead us through a lot of issues and processes over the years. And all the accolades that you've heard don't even come close to what he's really accomplished in real life with his family, with his work and with connections that he has throughout the state and the Army Corps. We're gonna miss him.”
No matter what position Foster held in his USACE career, he enjoyed his work and looked for ways to make a greater difference. As it turned out, leading and inspiring others was in his blood.
“When I was on the maintenance side of the house for 19 years, I'd be out on a backhoe or operating in the dam and helping reduce or avoid floods, and I enjoyed that,” said Foster. “And then when I became a park ranger and eventually a senior park ranger, I really enjoyed interacting with and helping the public through outreach programs, and all of the opportunities that role offered.”
Foster said at that time he didn’t really want to work at a desk, but eventually his desire to make an even greater difference grew.
“I wanted to have more influence on the outcomes of our efforts and to help convince others to buy into the important and often tough work we do for the public, but I needed to be at the next level to do that,” said Foster.
His promotion to Southern Operations Branch Chief reduced his time outdoors, but the impact of his efforts then extended across six water resource projects, reaching north as far as Buchanan Dam and Eastman Lake near Merced, and south to Isabella Dams and Lake, near Bakersfield.
“I've enjoyed that work,” he said reflecting on his role during the final chapter of his career.
“The people I’ve worked with are great. I've got a great team, and my supervisory chain is awesome. I mean, I've really got a pretty good gig, you know?”
Foster said that of all the gratification he’s taken from his long career, has been the opportunities to mentor people and watch them develop into great leaders.
“After 51 years with USACE, I have many fond memories of the work we have done with flood risk reduction, recreation, and maintenance of our dams and facilities,” he said. “But perhaps the greatest reward of my job has been to see those I’ve mentored go on to successful careers of their own.”
He didn’t know it at the time, but his eventual successor, Charlie Mauldin, was one of the people Foster mentored for 22 years.
Mauldin said he’s aware of “the very large shoes” Foster leaves behind, and he’s not sure that anyone could ever fully fill them. But Foster left more than those shoes behind, Mauldin said.
“Calvin’s knowledge and mentorship had a huge impact on my career development over the past two decades, and I know many of us here will say the same about their time with him. So, I think it’s important that we use the foundation he created for us, and to continue to build on it together as we face new challenges.”
So, make no mistake, Calvin Foster is still at the lake, but for the first time in a very long time, he won’t be taking any calls about the water. Afterall, bass fishing is a two-handed sport.
| Date Taken: | 11.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.25.2024 10:56 |
| Story ID: | 486060 |
| Location: | SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | PORTERVILLE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 50 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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