• November 13, 2000
• Vol. 54
• No. 20

Extra Credit

Louisiana Governor Mike Foster Always Hankered to Go to Law School—so at the Ripe Old Age of 70, He Did

Before he became governor of Louisiana, Mike Foster, 70, had been a lot of things. Air Force pilot. Sugar farmer. Chemical engineer. Construction company owner. That gig made him a multimillionaire at 30, but he kept going, learning how to navigate ships and work as a paramedic. In 1988 he became a state senator and eight years later was elected governor, a post his grandfather held nearly a century earlier. And now, in his second term, Foster—whose successful push for tort-reform legislation enraged many lawyers—has decided to take up his early ambition: going to law school. "The law has always fascinated me," he says.

So in spite of a daily routine that has him up at 5 a.m. for a treadmill workout, Governor Foster has enrolled in part-time classes at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge. He spends two mornings a week studying torts, legal writing and civil procedure. "Having the governor here is exciting," says fellow law student Cindy Acosta, 38. Adds Bobby Ballard, 25: "He's just like one of us."

Which is to say, a bit overwhelmed by the workload. "I have to stay up two hours extra every night just to keep up with my reading," says the governor, who enjoys relaxing at his 1837 Greek Revival weekend home on the banks of the Mississippi with second wife Alice, 60. "It's been tough. I'm not sure I'll ever finish."

Don't bet on it. Foster, the father of two children (one of whom is a lawyer) and stepfather to two others, can't seem to give up on anything. "I just like to learn," he explains. "And I hate to fail."