“I started off my career with a set of keys to the White House, and I’ve ended my career with a set of keys to Union University.”
When I sat down to talk with Tim Foster, Union University’s newly appointed director for Safety and Security, I didn’t expect him to immediately ask me how my classes were going. A person who’s worked for the Secret Service and the FBI, I assumed, must have an innate understanding of how valuable his time is. He would want to get something like an interview done as efficiently as possible and certainly not inquire about the week of a humble journalism student who was supposed to ask him the questions.
Foster, however, was laid-back and made his navy blue jacket which read “Safety and Security” seem like a cozy windbreaker appropriate for the fall weather. As we sat in Barefoots, the campus coffee shop that operates as a hub at Union, I wondered how tuned in he was to the noise around us. I imagined that, in a sort of Jason Bourne-esque way, he must be noticing things in the many interactions happening that the average person would not. Maybe, though, the truth is not so cinematic. It might be possible for him to be a normal guy who also happens to have highly specialized skill sets the rest of us will never have.
“I started off as an officer of the Uniformed Division, which is a branch of the Secret Service that patrols the White House and foreign missions—so the embassies in D.C.,” Foster said. “Two years later, I became an agent.”
While working in the Secret Service, Foster worked with various dignitaries, presidents and even celebrities (including Anthony Hopkins who, according to Foster, was wearing his Hannibal Lecter costume while traveling with the Clintons). In the aftermath of the U.S. embassy bombings in 1998, Foster was temporarily assigned to President Clinton’s security detail, something he technically did not have a high enough rank for at the time.
“I was a GS-7 doing the work of a GS-14,” Foster said. “You adapt and you overcome.”
“You adapt and you overcome” might be the mantra that encapsulates Foster’s career. In the face of any challenge he faced, no matter how stressful, demanding or haywire, this seems to be the attitude that carried him through to the other side. Whenever there was a job that needed to be done, Foster stepped up to the plate because there was no other option. However, this can-do attitude did not come from a place of brazen over-confidence. Rather, Foster emphasized the important role that continual learning played in his career successes.
“There is always going to be something to learn,” Foster said. “No matter how good you are, somebody’s better.”
After working for the Secret Service, Foster went on to work for a task force in the FBI aiming to curtail the illegal distribution of prescription drugs, then later as a firearms instructor and then an instructor to other firearms instructors. As his career unfolded, Foster also raised a family and found himself ready to transition into a different phase of life after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My wife’s family is originally from Tennessee, and we’ve always suspected that we would want to move to Tennessee,” Foster said.
After graduating from high school, Foster’s son decided to attend Union, where he is currently a freshman. At the same time, Foster began looking into security positions at Union, where he was ultimately offered his current position as Safety and Security’s director. Since then, he has been adjusting to the new, but welcome, change of pace that his job offers him. Still, his mantra of “adapt and overcome” rings true.
“I’m actually still learning what the day-to-day responsibilities are,” Foster said. “I didn’t come in expecting to change everything right away. If there’s something that we see needs change, then I’ll go ahead and I’ll facilitate that change. But everything is working fairly well right now. I’m just there to provide support for the guys that are doing the work.”
Foster described his new role as something that will still push him to learn, a process it seems that no amount of experience will ever make Foster feel he has completed.
“There’s experiences I have that give me a certain level of—I hate to say competence because it’s like a complete set of tools—there’s no such thing,” Foster said. “But I have acquired knowledge to assist in situations like this and that’s what I’m here to do. I’m extremely honored and humbled by the opportunity to do this.”
Foster, in spite of the fact that he has a far more impressive resume than most, seems to care less about his qualifications than he does about the idea of excellence at a fundamental level. He does not use his experience as a means to wield power over people and exact some sort of personal vision for how things should run. Instead, he seeks to use his experiences for the benefit of his new community and the team he’s been put in charge of to make that happen. At Union, just like the White House, there’s a job that needs to be done and Foster is here to do it.
“I like being out. I like being visible. I like that our guys are out and visible. I like the interaction with the students, and I like for my guys to interact with the students,” Foster said. “It’s a great-sized community. I feel so blessed to be here.”
As we sat in Barefoots and talked, I think Foster did notice things in his surroundings that I didn’t pick up on. Working for the Secret Service and FBI probably leaves you with a skill for observation that never fully goes away. Really, that’s why Union needs someone like Foster. He can walk through Barefoots, order a coffee and greet and make small talk with the barista, all while monitoring the environment in a way none of the rest of us can. Because of him, we don’t have to. Community needs specialists and specialists need a community to benefit from their talents.
“I told a pastor in Virginia that my spiritual gift was finding trouble,” Foster said. “He said, ‘Ah, discernment,’ and that’s exactly what it is—discernment and being able to use my discernment and my spiritual gifts here. There’s no other reason that I have been selected for this job.”
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