About Steve ~ Biography ~ Personal Interests

Stephen Earl (Steve) Foster: 

Following are experts from my Journals, notes, and résumé:

I  was born in Indianapolis Indiana June 18, 1937. Married to Marina Zaydes from St Petersburg Russia.

Graduated from Carmel High School (Indiana) in 1955, active in sports,  was Captain of both my  senior year Football and Basketball teams. I attended Franklin College and other Colleges including specialized courses at Danville Area Community College In my Early years I was an active member of the J C’s, and Life Underwriting Training Council, taught LUTC at Elmhurst College. I was a  Manager with Prudential Insurance in the 1960s. In the 1970s I was a Charter member Oriental Rug Retailers  Association, having studied Textiles and Eastern Rug weaving for five years, I started own business in Indianapolis and later Louisville, Importing and Exporting Oriental Rugs, and also dealing in fine art and furnishings. I did curative work with Indianapolis Museum of Arts. Lectured on oriental rugs and Eastern cultures, held scheduled classes in Eastern rug weaving for  several years in Louisville Kentucky. I primarily traded in Rugs, Fine Art, Antiques, Textiles, and furnishings. In the 1970s I operated the largest Oriental Carpet store in Kentucky.

In 1983 I moved to Danville Illinois and eventually founded Foster Aviation Corporation, Indianapolis, Indiana & Danville, Charleston-Mattoon, Shelbyville, Illinois I provided airport operational support at four locations, including fueling, flight training, aircraft maintenance and sales, (Cessna, Piper and Beechcraft Dealer).  Operated an Aircraft refurbishing-paint-interiors company. I wrote the manual for FAA Part 135 Air Charter certificate, Certified Air Carrier 1985 offering private charter services throughout USA operating light twins to jet turbo-props. In 1992 I developed the manual for FAA Part 141 Advanced Flight School. I was Certified 1992 for Primary, Commercial, Multi-Engine, and Instrument Flight training with staff FAA Examiner. Served as Chief of Operations 1985-1994. Also appointed by FAA as FAA Certified Safety Counselor 1985-1994. . Also acted as Airport Manager at two location, responsible for all maintenance and FAA regulatory compliances. I was Active Civil Air Patrol 1984-1988,  serving as a  Captain, USAFR-CAP. Beginning 1985 I served on the Board of Directors Illinois Aviation Trades Association - In 1988 I was elected President of the association. I was a licensed Commercial Pilot, FAA certified instrument- multi engine flight instructor.  I retired from aviation and sold the business in the Fall of 1994

Present

1996 Founder of BEAMSCO (Business E-commerce Applications &  Marketing Services COmpany) 1995-to Present. Originally offering Business evaluations, marketing consulting, small community economic development consulting, business brokerage and, correlated acquisitions and stock transfers. Commercial Real Estate brokering. Initial Business set up services.

IN 2000 BEAMSCO expanded to provide E-commerce service to businesses in the areas of Computer and Internet Services, providing Websites and internet marketing applications. In 2001 I created the Danville Area Internet Portal AllAroundDanville.com. It now has become  one of the largest internet community portals in the Midwest . As Webmaster for BEAMSCO by 2004 we have created more than one-hundred additional commercial and personal websites throughout the Midwest.

Activates since coming to Danville include: Member Board of Directors, Danville Symphony Orchestra 1989, President 1992 and 1997. Member of National Old Time Music Preservation Association 1989, Board of Directors 1990-1994 Boys and Girls Club,  Board of Directors, Vice President 1990. I served on the  Board of Directors DSO Foundation 1992,  President 1993. In 1994 I was one of the Founding Directors Vermilion Heritage Foundation 1984, Board of  Directors 1984-1998

In 1991 I was appointed to the City of Danville Historic Preservation Commission and was elected the first Commission Chairman. I was an active member of Danville Rotary (185 members) 1985 -1997. Served on the  Board of Directors 1993-1994 . Was a Paul Harris Fellow and was  President Elect in 1995

I also was a Member of the Danville Boat Club, Board of Directors 1989-1993 Elected Commodore 1991 & 1992. Other involvement included Board of Directors Danville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau 1992-1998. In 1991 I served on the  Oversight Committee for  the first Danville City Strategic Planning Project 1991-1993, 2000-2001.

I was elected to Danville City Council in 1992, reelected in 1996, and reelected again in 2000. I was appointed to the public Services Committee with oversight of Police-Fire and the Finance Departments. Was a Candidate for Mayor of Danville 1995. Elected-Vice Chair Public Services Committee 1992-1996,. I was appointed to the Public Works in 1996 and in  2005, I was elected Vice Mayor  in 2000 serving until 2002. Was elected Chairman Public Works Committee in 2003. In 2005 I was elected to a forth term to the City Council by a one vote margin of 437 to 436  votes cast out of 3,880 registered voters. This was a record close margin in an historically close ward, ( I won by 19 votes in 1997). On May 2, 2005 I was sworn in after a recount earlier in the day initiated by my opponent  sustained the one vote margin. I was then appointed to the Public Service Committee and the Finance Sub-committee. (See commentary on the one vote election)

Philosophical, religious and esoteric studies.  Prior to 1975 I studied history, with particular interest in ancient history and Eastern cultures.  By 1975 I had completed numerous books and self designed studies on the religions of the world, had developed a particular interest in Eastern thought and esoteric philosophies. Having studied, in depth, esoteric Christianity and related areas of other major and minor religious systems and philosophies relating to mysticism and unusual phenomena. From 1974 to 1980 I hosted a weekly religion-philosophical study group that grew to 45 members - coming  from many cultures and foreign countries. 

In 1980, I took a year “sabbatical” visiting libraries throughout the Midwest searching rare book sections for ancient and recent accounts of certain belief systems or disciplines and phenomena related to them (from earlier Masonic Orders & Christian sects to Sufism). I began with an extensive study of the Kane Ridge Revival in 1804-05. I collected copies and originals of scare papers and books by a number of commentators on similar unusual events and phenomena in the Christian Church(s), Tantric Buddhism, and Sufis such as Rumi, and related mystical publications, from the first century to date. 

 In 1981 I traveled with my wife Marina to the Middle East in pursuit of knowledge unavailable (so far as I could determine) in the West. Beginning in Jerusalem and Israel, visiting ancient sites and monastic orders, traveling also to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan and from Mt Herman to the Negev in Israel. I traveled to Safed (Spa) and visited with Sephardic Rabbis at the School of Cabala (ancient Jewish esoteric sect). I visited the Dead Sea area around Qumran where the Essenes were active through the AD70 (this is the sect that Jesus Christ is believed to have been a member, receiving his schooling) During this period I continued to keep a journal and write related  essays, which I considered developing into a manuscript.

After returning to the US in 1982 I continued my studies in Eastern and Western Philosophies and collected and studied additional books on  Human Psychology and beliefs systems - studying the later works of Tart, Trungpa, Anderson-Neal, Shah (the Sufis), and early-ancient writers and philosophers including Rumi, Homer, Justin Martyr, Lucian, and writings of Stoics. like Aurelius, the Epicureans, the Platonists, and Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoras, and books on the Gnostics, early Christians, religious mysticism, shamanism, and unexplained phenomena from many ancient manuscripts to early Mormon writings). In 1982 I visited with the exiled family of the Dali Lama, (his brother is a Buddhist Lama, and then Professor of Eastern Philosophy at Indiana  University), this acted as a catalyst to seek more specific schoolings and to gather knowledge of esoteric Tantric practices and other teachings from Tibet. I confirmed that certain basic beliefs, truths, and tenants seemed to be present in most belief systems and ancient schools. I began to form a fundamental concept of man's purpose and reason for being and his relationship to the universe, and possibility of further development. I then began a search for someone or some teaching and teacher that recognized these same basic tenants, and guide me where books can not. I discovered a series of scarce books written (from 1913 to present) by or about G. I. Gurdjieff that had traveled to the East in the nineteenth century and brought back to the West extraordinary cosmological explanations, teachings, disciplines, and a system of physics, universal order, and personal development. It is these teachings and this school of individual development that I had studied and applied its concepts personally for the past several years, both privately, in small groups, and at various institutes such as the Institute for Religious Development, in Warwick, NY. (W.A. Nyland Group) At present I had written a number of essays on the subject of these interests, some had been posted on the internet. I also assisted in editing a number of articles for the Gurdjieff International Review in Los Altos, California, where I was an Editorial Assistant. I also worked in the editing and publishing of the Nyland Index to All and Everything by Grudjieff. In 2006, working with Gurdjieff''s daughter, I created the website for the Gurdjieff Heritage Society New York.  My wife and I continued to pursue this and other disciplines leading to greater personal development......