Margery Somers Foster served as the fifth dean of Douglass College from 1967 through 1975. During a period in which many women's colleges were transformed into coeducational institutions, Dean Foster fought to maintain Douglass College as a viable women's college.

Born in Boston, Margery Somers Foster earned her BA from Wellesley College in 1934 and her PhD in Economics from Radcliffe College in 1958. Her doctoral thesis focused on the role that Harvard University played in the Puritan community as an economic institution. Dr. Foster's academic fields of interest are public finance, economic development and economic history. She taught economics at Hollins and Mount Holyoke colleges and Harvard University. During World War II, she spent four years as an administrator in the WAVES, leaving as a lieutenant. She became Deputy Comptroller and Director of Development at Wellesley in 1946, serving until 1954, when she went to Radcliffe to study for her doctorate. It was after employment as Assistant to the President at Mount Holyoke and Dean at Hollins College, a women's college in Virginia, that Dr. Foster came to Douglass College.

Her career exemplifies her commitment to strengthening higher education for women. In 1961, Dean Foster received a Carnegie Corporation grant to visit twenty-four educational institutions, a study that confirmed her strong belief that women's colleges needed to be sustained. She also participated in a study of nine women's colleges under a Rockefeller Brothers grant, as well as a fourteen college study of faculty benefits for the National Education Association.

Dean Foster has been a member of the American Economics Association, the Economic History Society, the Economic Society, Phi Beta Kappa and the American Association of University Professors. Dr. Foster served on the accreditation committee of the Southern Regional Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools; was a member of the National Committee on Examinations of the College Entrance Examination Board; and served on both the Administrative Committee of the College Research Center and the Educational Foundation Development Committee of the American Association of University Women.

Margery Somers Foster was the first woman to sit on the Board of Directors of Public Service Electric and Gas Company. She was a member of the board of the Prudential Life Insurance Company.

She has traveled widely in Europe, both to visit overseas study projects and to enjoy her hobby of "climbing small mountains." She belonged to the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Ramblers Association of the United Kingdom.

While at Rutgers University, Dean Foster was a member of the President's Cabinet and the Board of the Eagleton Foundation. At Douglass College she is most remembered for steering a course to maintain women's education. Dean during a period of student unrest, Margery Somers Foster evidenced tremendous ability to negotiate settlements amongst people with divergent points of view. She led a vigorous program to recruit women students from all corners of the state; initiated discussions to develop a women's studies program; greatly expanded the enrollment in the Bunting Program for returning older students; and with the assistance of alumnae, she founded the campus Women's Center to meet the growing needs of returning women students and workers.