Academy Fellow James Brady Foust died on November 27, 2024, in Eau Claire at the age of 81. Foust was an accomplished geographer, inventor, professor, and patron of arts who revolutionized insurance geospatial databases, patented new technology, served as a professor at UW–Eau Claire for thirty-seven years, and was president and patron of the Pablo Center at the Confluence in Eau Claire. Foust spent his free-range childhood in Clarksville, Tennessee, roaming the woods, sloughs, and caves along the Cumberland River. On his own at thirteen, he’d hitchhiked around the South by the time he was sixteen. Foust earned a BA in Philosophy and Geography from Stetson University and a MS and PhD in Geography from the University of Tennessee and taught at the University of Tennessee, and Appalachian State University before joining the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire faculty in 1971.
At UW–Eau Claire, Foust developed a reputation as a passionate defender of the Chippewa Valley and as a dedicated mentor who helped thousands of students to expand their horizons. Foust’s research on geographic information systems helped to spur the initial geospatial underwriting processes for the likes of State Farm, Travelers, and The Hartford. In 2016, with two former students from UW–Eau Claire, Foust co-founded software company HazardHub Inc., a data-service software company that uses artificial intelligence to build property-level hazardous risk databases.
In September 2024, Foust was inducted into the most recent cohort of Academy Fellows, an honor reserved for extraordinary Wisconsinites with high levels of accomplishment in their fields who demonstrate a lifelong commitment to intellectual discourse and public service.
