William F. Foshag

Berkeley with the thesis The origin of the colemanite deposit of the western United States.

In 1946 Foshag and Edward P. Henderson traveled to Japan to examine gemstones confiscated by the U.S. Army; the two experts spent more than four months there sorting and appraising gemstones, worth some $25 million in 1946 U.S. dollars.

[6] Based upon his discovery, in Guatemala's Motagua Valley, of the only in situ jadeitite locality south of the U.S. border, Foshag in 1949 was commissioned by the Guatemalan government to survey jade objects from pre-Columbian Central America.

For many years until his death in 1956, Foshag was the head curator of the National Museum's Department of Geology.

He was survived by his wife, Merle Crisler Foshag (1899–1977), an artist who worked in the same department.