By Dana Roberts • The Cardinal Contributing Writer
Get to Know a Doylestownian is a monthly feature in which a Doylestown resident or person of interest helps us get to know them better by finishing sentences we provide, in any way they see fit. For July, we interviewed James, “Jim,” Foster, General Pool Manager of Fanny Chapman Memorial Pool, Doylestown’s community pool, which was first opened to the public on a membership basis on June 21, 1927.
I moved to the Doylestown area… in 2005, from Georgia, where I was teaching middle school science and coaching wrestling. I moved back into the area to take a teaching position at Pennwood Middle School in the Pennsbury District. For the next four years I lived in the Borough of Doylestown.
I became the Pool Manager of Fanny Chapman…after in¯itially just wanting to become a member. In July of 2005 I decided to join Fanny Chapman Pool but was turned away due to memberships being closed. I love to swim and decided to apply to the Fanny Chapman Board to become a Board Member and was accepted. During 2006, I served as a Member of the Fanny Board. In 2007 the Pool Manager’s position became available and I accepted the position. I am now in my 16th year as Pool Manager.
My responsibilities as Pool Manager include… preparing all the off-season information and schedules, hiring of the staff, preparing the pools for the season, ordering equipment and supplies, program promotion and advertising, preparing the online registration website and responding to membership and program inquiries.
My experience with swimming and lifeguarding started… when I was a teenager. As a young adult, lifeguarding was my passion. I was a lifeguard at my community pool in high school, guarded at the pools at the University of South Carolina and Virginia Commonwealth University, and spent summers as part of the water activity staff guarding and teaching water activities at camp or guarding at the nearby lake. A highlight of my VCU college career was being recommended to Southern Illinois University graduate school by a professor and former SIU All American Swimmer for a graduate teaching assistant position, for which I was accepted.
My other career was… teaching middle school science during the school year. Working at Fanny Chapman was my summer job. I have always loved working with middle school, high school and college-age students. In the 15 years I spent working at Pennwood Middle School, I was involved in leading the character development program. I worked on programs including “No Place for Hate”, Say No to Drugs, Leadership training with Student Council, and fundraising with our annual walk-a-thon, which funded many of the programs we offered to students.
The award for students that was renamed after me following my retirement is…the Pennwood Middle School Fostering Unity Award. As part of the Unity Team, we presented awards to students for outstanding character, leading by example, and showing an inherent ability to lead and work with other students. One such award was the Unity Award, which went to an outstanding eighth grade student for their school involvement and outward show of outstanding character and leadership. I retired from teaching in 2017. In 2019, I was asked to return to Pennwood to present the Unity Award to an outstanding 8th grade student. Little did I know that the Pennwood Unity Team had renamed the award in my honor. It was one of the most rewarding moments of my teaching career.
During the school year now… I am a fulltime school substitute in the Pennridge School District at South Middle School.
My family includes… my wife, Barbara, and our blended family of 6 children. Three are teachers, one does internet sales for Thompson BMW, one is a real estate agent, and one is in construction. Over the years, two have been employed as Fanny Chapman lifeguards.
Fanny Chapman was founded in 1927… by William and Martha Mercer, with a mission to teach the community to swim. Today we still stand by that mission. In the late 1950’s, Martha Mercer donated the pool complex to the Borough of Doylestown. The pool is celebrating its 95th birthday this season.
The pool complex is… owned by the Borough of Doylestown and operated by a Board of Managers, who employ a pool general manager.
Each summer, the pool employs… approximately 90 to 100 lifeguards, coaches, and swim instructors.
The question I always ask teenagers applying for a job at Fanny Chapman is… “Using one-word adjectives, tell me who you are as a person”. From someone’s application, I know they if they are certified or skilled in swimming. What I want to find out is if they will fit with the personality and work ethic of the pool environment at Fanny Chapman. For a lot of our staff, it is their first job.
One of the things I love about working with young people is… their ability to grow and develop into mature, responsible adults. Being at Fanny for the past 16 years, I have watched toddlers grow through our swim lesson program who are now running our swim lesson program. I see former guards and instructors bringing their families to Fanny. I love having those “Ah, Ha” moments when they “finally get it”…oh, so that’s why we do it that way.
My typical summer daily schedule… varies day-to-day with programs, swim meets, and other events.
Most people don’t know that Fanny Chapman… is owned by the Borough but operates solely on the funds generated by membership and programs. This is why we do not have residency requirements to belong to the pool. Also, not this past Olympics, but the previous summer Olympics, there were three former Fanny Chapman swimmers who qualified for the Olympic trials.
On Memorial Day weekend… we had gorgeous weather and approximately 1600 people visited the pool throughout the weekend.
The quietest time at the pool is… I am not sure there is a quiet time. Swim team starts at 7am and we soon will be closing at 9pm.
The busiest time at the pool is… during swim lessons and swim/dive meets.
Of the five pools in our complex, my favorite pool is… the dive pool. I love to watch the young divers learn new dives and work to perfect them.
One of my favorite traditions at Fanny Chapman is… the swim/dive team cheers and chants at swim meets. The friendships that are made swimming usually last a lifetime. On numerous occasions I have had wedding parties on the pool deck taking photos because Fanny Chapman was where they met and grew up swimming…now they and their families vacation together, and celebrate holidays and birthdays together.
The water temperature….was 76 degrees on Memorial Day, and by the end of the season is usually in the low 80’s.
Good pool etiquette is… “playing nice with others”.
A song that captures summer for me is… any Beach Boys’ song.
On the job, it always makes me smile when… I see the toddlers smiling and energetic to enter the pool and unhappy when they are told it is time to go home because they love Fanny Chapman Pool.
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