PORTAGE — Nearly three months into his retirement, Steve Foster has traveled to both coasts.

He has gone to the Super Bowl and spent a week in Florida.

“I’ve sort of taken advantage of my couple months so far,” he said recently.

Foster, who retired Jan. 31 as director of fiscal services with the Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities, said he has been a Cincinnati Bengals fan all his life.

The Bengals lost a close game to the LA Rams in Los Angeles at the 56th Super Bowl in February.

Foster said he didn’t purchase tickets until the Friday before the game.

“We have to go because Cincinnati never gets there,” he told his oldest son, who lives in Pennsylvania.

He said it is unlikely he’ll go to another championship game, as it took the Bengals 30 years to get there.

“I hope to be around in 30 years, but the chances aren’t too good,” Foster said.

The trip to Florida was for his wife.

“My wife’s a beach and sun person and I’m more an outdoors type,” he said.

That is why he has purchased property in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where he plans to travel back and forth more now that he isn’t working.

He added he has a daughter, who is a senior in high school, who plays softball and that keeps in traveling.

The day the county board celebrated his retirement, bad weather closed Wood Lane School.

“This was such an important day for us, we closed school for you,” said Superintendent Brent Baer.

Foster’s family and co-workers attended the board meeting, carrying balloons, and gave him a standing ovation,

“I was quite shocked. They kept it a secret. I got beet red. I didn’t know what to expect after that,” he recalled.

Foster stumbled onto his career with the county agency, beginning as a substitute bus driver while going to school for accounting. That was in January 1983, when the agency’s offices were on Pearl Street.

In February 1986, he took on the position as accounting clerk 2. He moved up to accountant 3 in June 1987.

He became fiscal coordinator in January 1990 and remained at the post until his promotion to director of fiscal serviced in January 2004.

Baer said the WCBDD benefited from the “Steve Foster Approach” to budgeting as evidenced by the many successful audits and pristine budgets.

“Successful audits do not happen by accident,” Baer said, “but are due to consistent implementation of record keeping, accounting principles and financial integrity.”

Foster said COVID and the subsequent requirements took the fun out of the job.

“It seemed like I was doing more to make sure everything was in line,” he said. “I was getting reviewed by everybody … towards the end it was getting not as much fun as earlier, keeping up with the changes.

“People say you know when it’s time to go and at the end of 2020, I knew,” he said.

Foster’s dedication and commitment to the people served by the board also was praised.

Baer said Foster would always ask “Tell me how this program or service benefits those we serve.”

Once he had a solid understanding of how a program or service would improve the lives of those we serve, he would develop a sound financial plan to support the initiative, Baer added.

Foster said he had to stop by the office a couple of weeks ago and ran into individuals he had developed relationships with.

“That is the part I miss the most,” he said.

He said while his job was behind the scenes, he wanted to make sure to do what he could to improve the lives of the people they served.

At the pace the agency has grown, there has not been much time to reminisce, Foster said at the January meeting.

“Under Brent’s leadership, this place is going to the moon,” he said.

He said the hardest part of retiring will be missing the people.

After working for 39 years, Foster plans to spend more time in the UP and fishing on Lake Erie.

“I love being on the water, it has a calming effect,” he said.

At the recognition of his retirement, board Vice President Rebecca Ferguson presented Foster with a Cincinnati Red’s jersey with his name on the back.

“You have been phenomenal. You will be missed,” she said.

Also with the Bengals, Foster has been a life-long Reds fan.

“That was unbelievable. I’ve been a Reds and Bengals fan my whole life,” he said.

Foster has never been to the Great American Ball Park, where the Reds play.

“I’ll have a little more time to do that,” he said.