FAMU 'Marching 100' creator dies at age 91

William P. Foster arrived at Florida A&M University a year after World War II ended and spent the next half-century building the school's marching band into a world-famous phenomenon.

Under his tutelage and baton, the Rattlers' "Marching 100" wowed crowds during hundreds of halftime shows, marched at President Clinton's inaugural parades and was the only American band invited for the French bicentennial celebration in 1989.

Foster, whose musical talent blossomed early, died Saturday in Tallahassee. He was 91.

"I can attest to the fact that what he created was magical," said FAMU President James H. Ammons. "It was the marching band, at an Orange Blossom Classic in Miami, that sparked my interest in attending FAMU.

"The band was dynamic, larger than life and something that I wanted to have access to even though I was not a musician," Ammons said in a statement.

Anthony Foster said his father had his students memorize the music rather than read it off sheet music attached to their instruments. That freed them up to perform precise dance routines while they played or marched in elaborate formations.

A child of Kansas City, Kan., William Foster was 12 when he began his music career by learning to play the clarinet. His talent was recognized early; he was appointed student director of the Sumner High School Orchestra in Kansas City.

Foster earned his bachelor's of music education from the University of Kansas but, as a young black man, wasn't allowed to march in the school's all-white band. Later, his "Marching 100" would become the first black band to play in the Festival of States Parade in St. Petersburg.

Still, Foster did not publicly fashion himself as someone who broke down racial barriers, his son said.

"He let his work speak for him," said Anthony Foster, a 66-year-old biology teacher in New York City. "He was not a rah-rah-rah type of guy."

Foster arrived at FAMU in 1946 after a stint as band director at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute.

Anthony Foster said the "Marching 100" gained such renown that whites would go to football games to watch the band play at halftime, then leave.

Foster was a stickler - students called him "The Law" - and expected band members to be on time and prepared. Among his band graduates were jazz greats Nat and Cannonball Adderley.

Foster retired in 1998, the same year he was inducted as a Great Floridian by the Museum of Florida History.

His funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday in Lee Hall Auditorium on the FAMU campus. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the "William P. and Mary Ann Foster Endowed Scholarship Fund," which supports FAMU band scholarships.

Foster also is survived by his son, William Patrick Foster, 69, a retired physicist.