John Shaw Foster was born in Mobile, Alabama on November 17, 1870, the son of William Sotry and Margaret Shaw Foster. He attended Southwest Presbyterian University at Clarksville, Tennessee from 1887-1891, where he was a member of Theta Chapter. He was a junior at Southwestern at the time of the Hampden-Sydney 1889 Convention and the only Pi Kappa Alpha at Southwestern when he returned the preceding fall. By desparate efforts, however, he had been able to save Theta Chapter from extinction. Foster received his M.A. degree from Southerwestern in 1891 and his B.D. degree in 1894. He served as pastor in Senatobia, Mississippi from 1894-96; in Franklin, Tennessee from 1896-1902; of Tabb Street Church in Petersburg, Virginia from 1902-10; of First Church in Winton-Salem, North Carolina from 1921-36; and a professor of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia from 1936-41. Foster had been named moderator of the Synod of North Carolina in 1929, and in 1906, Hampden-Sydney COllege had conferred on him the D.D. degree. He married Bessie Goss of Hartwell, Georgia on June 20, 1894, and they had three daughters and a son. Foster served Pi Kappa Alpha as Grand Secretary and Grand Chaplain. He died in Decatur, Georgia on May 26, 1943 at the age of 72. He is buried in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
