Bertha Mae Foster (May 3, 1881 – February 29, 1968) was a founding regent of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and served on its board of trustees from 1925 to 1941.
[2] The University of Miami awarded Bertha Foster an honorary doctor of musical arts (D.M.A.)
[5] She was a graduate of the College of Music of Cincinnati and a pupil of organist William Wolstenholme in London, England.
[6] She moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1910,[7] where she founded and operated the School of Musical Art for 11 years.
[9] By the early 1920s, Foster was widely known in Florida as an accomplished organist, pianist, choir director, and successful music education administrator.
[17] Despite a major hurricane that caused widespread damage in Miami on September 17, 1926, Foster and 22 music faculty members and 25 college music majors began classes one month later on October 15, 1926, in the Anastasia Hotel which became the temporary home of the University of Miami.
[18] While leading the University of Miami School of Music through the Great Depression and into an era of growth and prosperity, Foster also opened the doors to a new Musicians Club of America in 1939, a residential home for retired musicians first located at 303 Minorca Avenue in Coral Gables, then at 1564 Brickell Avenue in Miami.
[3] In 1952, the members of the Upsilon Delta chapter of Chi Omega presented Foster with the first Bertha Foster Award of the Chi Omega Alumnae, created to honor woman who “contributed to and encouraged cultural development.”[21] Foster was one of the first faculty members of the Upsilon Delta chapter of Chi Omega founded on December 17, 1936, the first national fraternity for women to come to the University of Miami.