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.”