Leila Merrell Foster was born in 1929 to Leila Foster and George H. Foster (NU 1912.) Foster attended high school at Milwaukee-Downer Seminary and DeKalb High School. At Northwestern, Foster was an active member of Alpha Phi sorority, the assistant business manager of the Pegasus literary magazine, and the press representative for the 1949 Waa-Mu Show (a student-produced musical revue). She was co-chairman of the Campus Conference on Religion and was awarded the Sigmund Livingston Inter-Faith Fellowship Award. During her junior year, Foster was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, and named a member of the Mortar Board national honor society. Foster earned a Bachelor of Business degree in 1950, and continued her education at Northwestern earning a J.D. in 1953, a Master of Divinity in 1964, and a PhD in 1966.
From the guide to the Leila M. Foster (1929-) Scrapbooks, 1946-1949, (Northwestern University Archives)
