Foster Waterman Stearns

Who was Foster Waterman Stearns?

Foster Waterman Stearns was a U.S. Representative from New Hampshire.

Born in Hull, Massachusetts, Stearns attended public schools. He graduated from Amherst College in 1903, Harvard University in 1906, and Boston College in 1915. He was Librarian of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1913 to 1917, and State Librarian of Massachusetts in 1917.

During the First World War, Stearns served as a first lieutenant with the Sixteenth Infantry, First Division, and at the General Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, where he served as assistant military attaché from November 27, 1917, until discharged August 5, 1919.

He served in the Department of State, Washington, D.C., in 1920 and 1921, and was third secretary of the American Embassy, attached to the United States High Commission, in Constantinople, 1921-1923. He was second secretary of the American Embassy at Paris in 1923 and 1924.

Returning to the United States, Stearns was Librarian of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1925 to 1930. He moved to Hancock, New Hampshire, in 1927.

He served as member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1937 and 1938, and served as delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1940 and 1948. He was Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, 1941-1945.