Tufts veterinary school co-founder dies in Boston

NORTH GRAFTON, MASS. — Henry L. Foster, DVM, died of cancer Oct. 14 at his apartment in Boston. Foster helped found Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Foster graduated from Middlesex Veterinary College in the 1940s and founded the Charles River Breeding Laboratories in Boston in 1947 with the goal of supplying the research community with rodents that were free of germs and disease. By 2006, the company reported net sales of $1.06 billion, according to the company's Web site.

He became involved in many philanthropic efforts outside his business, helping found the Cummings veterinary school in 1978.

Foster and his wife, Lois, also helped fund many scholarship programs at the school.