Robert “Bob” Foster, the longtime businessman whose expertise helped guide his two-term mayoral tenure through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, died at a hospital in Palm Springs Sunday following an accidental fall at his La Quinta home. He was 78.
In a statement released Monday, a spokesperson said he was “surrounded by family” at the time of his death. A funeral is still being arranged with details to be announced.
After a distinguished career in the private sector, including as president of Southern California Edison, it was the lot of Bob Foster to become mayor of Long Beach at a time when circumstances beyond his control placed the city in financially dire straits…