Every day when the weather permits, Willard Foster of Burlington loads up his Ford truck with mowers, weed trimmers and other equipment to set off on a day of hard labor. This may sound like an average man running a landscaping business except for one small fact. Foster will be 90 years old in March.
Foster began Willard W. Foster Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance, in 1970 and is still going strong.
It all began when the trucking company Foster worked with for 20 years, Associated Transport, closed down. One day while out of a job and at the Burlington Bank, now Sun-Trust Bank, Foster was approached by the bank manager and was asked to mow the lawn. Foster did such a good job, he was asked to come back.
Then other banks began calling for his services.
"At one point every bank in town was calling me," he said.
Foster was working for both banks and local residences. Typically, he made $8 for a bank landscaping job and $3 for a home job.
This was when he packed up his 1954 Chevrolet truck with his tools and set off with five other men to spruce up Burlington homes and businesses.
Now, Foster works alongside two employees landscaping houses, businesses and two banks. Most of his work is done by referrals and consists of trimming, mowing, cleaning the grass and laying mulch. Typically, he works seven to eight hours a day.
Foster grew up in Burlington in a house with no electricity and no indoor plumbing until he was about 16 years old. He had five brothers and sisters, all of whom he has survived, a father who ran a hardware store and mother who stayed at home. Foster served in World War II in the Army from 1941 to 1945, he said. He's been married twice and has a daughter, Willard Plunkett, 67, and a son, Toby, 28.
Foster attributes his good health and long life to staying active and moving around so much every day.
"'Cause I ain't gonna sit around," Foster said when asked why he does such hard work at his age. "The doctor said if I sat down, that would be it. He said to stay active, and I agree with him." People still stop Foster on the street to compliment his landscaping work. He recalled a time when a man stopped him to tell him that he could recognize every job Foster had done in the area.
"It makes me feel good," he said.
He plans to continue working to remain healthy and happy.
"I do good work," he said. "I get accused of being a perfectionist. I'm not going to quit now."