The Foster Foundation, which in 2007 gave $36.5 million to the business school at the University of Washington, is the legacy of a local family whose company was the first Seattle brokerage to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Albert O. Foster, a 1928 UW graduate, founded Foster & Marshall. In 1971, son Michael G. Foster took over, expanded into five states and grew revenues tenfold.

In 1982, he sold Foster & Marshall to Shearson/American Express, and two years later created the Foster Foundation. One of its first major gifts was $3 million to the UW School of Business for a library named for Albert O. Foster and his wife, Evelyn. Before last year's gift, the Foster Foundation had previously given the business school $13.5 million since 1990.