[1] After graduating from Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, Foran attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He was elected to the New Jersey State Assembly in 1969 and served as a member of the Joint Appropriations Committee, eventually becoming Minority Leader.
He was elected to the New Jersey Senate in 1977, taking the seat of Anne Clark Martindell, a Democrat who resigned to serve in a series of positions in the Carter administration including United States Ambassador to New Zealand.
[4] Foran was considered an "old school statesman" and "an imposing figure" (hence the nickname "Moose"), who had "a congenial and persuasive manner and a quick mind.
It is a 154,000-square-foot (14,300 m2) complex housing the Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment, the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, and the Chang Science Library.