Tom Foster — the soft-spoken, endlessly curious, skillful and deeply passionate historian with an uncanny ability to repair, restore and even recreate historic treasures — would almost certainly have been chagrined to learn that a day had been named in his honor.
He valued privacy. He respected it in others. And despite a life that quite literally spanned the globe, Foster rarely spoke about himself or the wide network of friends and collaborators he maintained. It is only now, in the wake of his passing, that many are discovering just how far those connections reached.
As longtime friend and confidant Bunney Kessler put it simply: “If you knew, you knew.”
Many did not.
Although Foster preferred to stay out of the limelight and was never one for glad-handing, his role as executive director of Bullion Plaza Cultural Center & Museum required both. Hired by the museum’s board in 2009, he became a familiar presence at city, town, and county meetings, joined the Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce and served on its board, and worked closely with civic groups and preservation partners across the region.
Ellen Kretsch, who worked with him at the Chamber and serves on the museum board, said Foster hated sales, like selling tickets for the Chamber Camaraderie, but excelled at anything that would bring money into the museum — from reaching out to potential donors to getting sponsors to underwrite building improvements and upgrade his technology, to connecting with members and residents.
Keith Dindinger, whose name is on the Bullion Plaza wall, shared a connection with Foster dating back to their school days in Oceanside, California. They reconnected through the museum and their shared interests in preserving the history of Miami, mining, minerals, military and more. Dindinger donated significant items for museum exhibits over the years, as well as money to support the mission.
Foster’s professional reach extended statewide. He served on the Arizona Historical Society Board of Directors, while also building strong relationships with fellow historians, mining companies and cultural institutions. He was particularly fond of the Pleasant Valley Historical Society and its work in preserving the historical record of the Pleasant Valley War.
One of his major projects — a detailed, full-scale miniature mining diorama created in collaboration with the Arizona Mining and Minerals Museum — was completed shortly before his passing in early 2024 and installed at Bullion Plaza. Additional work is being done to make the display interactive.
Foster had a particular love for military and industrial history and was widely respected for his technical skill. He restored historic firearms for collectors and NRA members across the country, quietly building a reputation that earned him lifelong friendships. Among the pieces in his own collection was an original WWII Thompson submachine gun, one he reluctantly sold during a health crisis to cover medical expenses.
He meticulously recreated one of Globe’s most famous murder cases, in which a prisoner was shot and killed inside his jail cell by a shooter standing at a window of the adjacent courthouse. Many questioned whether that could really have happened, but Foster proved it could.
One of his last acts was to serve as the armorer on the movie set of Dog Bite Murders, which was filmed almost entirely in the Globe area.
A combination of dedication to detail and historical accuracy characterized much of his work.
One of the most iconic artifacts now displayed at Bullion Plaza — the massive steam hoist on the museum grounds — has a story that speaks volumes about Foster’s persistence. According to fellow historian and longtime friend Jeremy Rowe, Foster spent years disassembling the hoist at the bottom of the Harquahala Mine in western Arizona. Piece by piece, he hauled it out using a homemade plywood sled and a come-along. The effort spanned several years and even endured two earthquakes before all the parts made their way back to Foster’s garage in Phoenix.
“I helped him pour the bearings for it,” Rowe recalled. “You couldn’t buy bearings for something like that anymore, so we poured new bronze ones ourselves.”
Foster eventually got the hoist running again with compressed air, and it sat in his garage in Phoenix until he got involved with Bullion Plaza Museum and talk of a mining exhibit took hold among Foster and his Board members. So, once again, Foster dismantled it to haul it up to Miami, where it now sits on museum grounds.
His restoration work extended well beyond mining equipment. Foster assisted former Main Street Director Kip Culver in restoring the old Territorial Jail, refurbishing the original metal bars and locking mechanism rescued from the Yuma Territorial Prison when it closed. Dating back to the early 1900s, the doors operate through a single mechanism that opens and closes multiple cells at once. To have working doors means visitors get the full experience of prison life as they are invited to step inside the cells and hear the line of metal doors clang shut — a fan favorite experience for visitors interested in Territorial justice.
Foster took on the challenge of restoring a World War I-era cannon that had been gifted to the Town of Miami decades earlier and left in storage. With permission to disassemble it, Foster faced the danger of a powerful recoil spring, according to Rowe, who helped him with the project. His solution was characteristically practical: he secured the cannon at the old train depot, using chains and a concrete stopping block designed to halt runaway trains. The spring fired exactly as expected, into the concrete, and stopped safely.
The cannon’s interior machining, he found, was so precise that even after decades, there was no rust. Foster later commissioned new wheels from a specialist in North Carolina. Though the cannon remains in pieces, all the restoration work has been completed, ready for the next caretaker to reassemble.
He also restored a smaller cannon from the museum’s military room and once fired it on the museum grounds, delighting a gathered crowd.
Rowe, who met Foster while both were working with Sharlot Hall Museum, described him as a “pretty cool character with a very, very broad and eclectic life.”
“I helped him with grants, research and some of his restoration work. I was involved with the Humanities Council and others, so we always found ourselves brainstorming and getting ideas together,” Rowe said, adding, “then he would take the idea and run with it.”
Foster’s life was as eclectic as it was expansive. As Rowe explained, through earlier work in weapons restoration and import-export, Foster developed connections with the Kalashnikov company, best known for its AK-47 rifle and, less famously, for vodka.
Foster was instrumental in shepherding Kalashnikov vodka samples through customs in England and the U.S., packaged in wooden cases designed to resemble rifle shipping crates. Rowe even provided photography for the brand’s promotional materials.
Bunney Kessler, who now manages Foster’s estate, confirmed that a few bottles remain. One will eventually be auctioned during a future Tom Foster Day to benefit the museum.
This year’s fundraiser will include a vintage leather jacket from Foster’s collection, featuring hand-painted WWII-era imagery of a seductive island lass known as “Honolulu Lulu,” reflecting the propaganda art of the Japanese during the war.
Kessler, who became a close confidant and trusted friend, was at first glance an unlikely person to connect so completely with Foster. They came from different backgrounds, held different political views, and didn’t always agree. But what bound them was stronger than disagreement: a shared instinct to step up and help, and a genuine love for the community.
Kessler, who owns an antique shop in Miami and lives in the hills above the town with her two daughters, puts it this way:
“I’m a person who likes to help others,” Kessler said. “And Tom was obviously a person who cared about this town.”
Both were night owls. It wasn’t unusual, she says, for Foster to call late in the evening, sometimes as late as 11 p.m., just to ask if she wanted to keep him company while he worked on an exhibit. Those hours were filled with conversation. Foster was attentive, thoughtful, and a careful listener. Disagreement on anything never became division.
“He understood that people were more than their opinions,” she says.
Her children adored him, calling him “Awesome Tom.” With a degree in art history and a background in teaching, Foster had a natural gift for mentoring, especially with young people.
Kessler said that as Tom grew older, and after the sudden loss of his close friend Cliff Carnahan, who had worked alongside him on most of his projects at the museum, Foster became increasingly focused on continuity. He understood that museums survive only when people are brought along. Kessler says he knew the museum’s future depended on bringing others along.
Foster actively sought out people who were invested in the community and had the energy to carry the work forward. It was fortunate timing when Phil Stewart, a new resident who had moved here with his wife and opened an antique shop on Sullivan Street, joined the board. Foster began pulling him into projects and conversations he was involved with. Stewart was there the day Foster collapsed during a board meeting, and he picked up the reins, as Foster had hoped.
Stewart smiles now when he remembers that scary time, and says he reminded himself not to try to be Tom Foster, but to be himself.
While Stewart lacks the deep well of historical expertise and skills that Foster had, he is a connector, like Foster, and understands his role is to connect people to the museum's larger mission. He is assisted in this by his board, many of whom have been with the museum for nearly 20 years.
Others include the museum’s research assistant, Lee Ann Powers, who worked closely with Foster on documenting history and runs the museum's social media, and Tom Meredith, who worked with Foster on exhibits and has a good understanding of the museum's archives and exhibits.
The most recent exhibits include a rare assay office, gifted to the museum this year and recently set up by Meredith and others, and a smaller exhibit on the (in)famous Keystone Hotel. Ongoing improvements are being made to the mining diorama by members of the Arizona Mining Research group.
Stewart is focused on building a strong relationship with the Miami School District and exploring ways to get kids more involved in history, and he is aware of the need for a research room to house and catalogue the immense archives the museum now holds.
With projects in the wings and a lot to manage, a day named for the museum's charismatic and dynamic former director is a good time to raise funds on behalf of the museum and plan for the future.
Tom Foster passed away in January 2024 from a brain aneurysm.
It has been said that “History survives not because it is old, but because it is cared for.”
That philosophy defined Tom Foster’s life. He was a master caretaker, not only of artifacts and buildings, but of ideas, relationships and community. He didn’t just preserve history. He worked to establish Bullion Plaza Museum as a cornerstone of historical significance. One that would endure. One that could be carried forward by the people he quietly inspired along the way.
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