The WRA staff lost a dear friend, and the WRA organization lost part of its soul, when Gale Foster lost her short but intense battle with cancer on February 24, 2012.

Gale was the WRA’s Vice President for Administrative Services, an all-encompassing department responsible for accounting, budgeting, human resources, membership, dues billing, building and equipment management, and computer software development and hardware support. For 34 years, Gale demonstrated her dedication, talent and compassion each and every day, and through her example, helped build what is now recognized as one of the best staffs in the nation.

For 27 of those 34 years, I had the distinct honor and pleasure to work side-by-side with Gale. The WRA staff is very much a family, and Gale was equal parts our den mother, drill sergeant, bookkeeper and grandmother. She set our high standards, and she enforced them with vigor. I will never forget her infectious laugh, her passion and hard work, her innovative problem solving, and, most of all, her love for her family, her staff and her organization.

Gale will be sorely missed but never forgotten. She will be missed not just in our daily operations, which will never be the same, but with that part of our personality that is gone forever. But she will never be forgotten. The leadership of the WRA has approved naming the education center in our building after Gale. That way, thousands of students, REALTOR^® members and association leaders who use the center every year will read the plaque on the wall and either learn about Gale or stop for a minute to remember her. We will also be naming the WRA Staff of the Year Award after Gale, so with the annual reading of why this top staff honor is named after her, Gale will be remembered long after we are all gone.

These things won’t replace Gale or our current sense of loss, but they will ensure that her memory and all she has meant to us will live in our hearts and our organization forever.

And now, as Gale would have insisted, we move on to the next chapter at the WRA. The major changes in the real estate industry over the past several years and the WRA senior staff over the past several months, create a unique moment in time for exciting changes and improvements at the WRA. Our talented staff, which pulled together so remarkably during these trying few months, is eager and willing to begin a new era that ensures we meet the needs of our members as those needs change with a dynamic new marketplace. We are excited to work with an equally talented leadership team that has challenged the organization to undertake a robust strategic planning process, to think creatively and to redesign an association that will preserve, protect and promote homeownership as well as private property rights and the ability of our members to succeed for generations to come. The WRA leadership and staff stand ready to do this and are excited to begin.

Mike Theo

Note: The Foster family has established two memorial funds in Gale’s honor and memory.  Contributions can be made to Edgewood High School business classes and Agrace HospiceCare Inc., at: 

Edgewood High School (Business Classes)

2219 Monroe Street

Madison, WI 53711

Agrace HospiceCare Inc.

5395 E. Cheryl Parkway

Madison, WI 53711