Tom Foster; Former Head of Foster Poultry Farms

Tom Foster, 49, former head of his family’s Foster Poultry Farms, one of the nation’s top privately held companies. Born Oct, 24, 1949, Thomas Orrin Foster was the youngest of three sons of Max Foster, who founded the turkey and chicken business in 1939. Tom Foster took over the company at the age of 27 after his brother, Paul, who headed it from 1969 to 1977, died of a heart attack. Tom Foster and his surviving brother, George, retained family ownership but turned over management of the food product business to an outside board and chief executive officer in 1992. Foster Farms now markets more than 750 food items and has more than 7,000 employees. Tom Foster devoted his recent years to philanthropy and to auto racing. He was part of Tracer Racing, which raced competitively and also designed and manufactured racing cars and parts. The team won 13 Sports Car Club of America national titles in the C Sports Racers class, with Foster at the wheel for seven of them. Last Thursday Foster had been scheduled to receive the Angel of the Year award from Sierra Vista Children’s Center, which he had supported for years. The center is near his home 90 miles east of San Francisco. Foster was also a major supporter of the DARE drug education program and other charities. On Sept. 22 in Hickman, Calif., of complications of diabetes including heart problems.

James Peck; Journalist, Teamsters Executive

James Peck, 73, former executive of the Southern California Joint Council of Teamsters. Born in Holtville, Calif., and raised in Los Angeles, Peck managed to join the Army at the outset of World War II although he was only 14. A lieutenant and navigator in the Army Air Corps, he flew bombing missions in Italy and earned a Purple Heart for wounds suffered in the crash of his plane. During his early career, Peck was a copy boy for the Oakland Tribune, a reporter for the now-defunct Los Angeles Mirror, sister paper of The Times, and a columnist for the now-defunct Los Angeles Examiner. He was commissioned to write a book about the developing civil rights movement in the 1950s and produced a syndicated KTTV Emmy Award-winning television news program known as “The Paul Coates Show.” Peck began working with the Teamsters in 1961 as communications director and soon became vice president of political affairs. He retired in 1988 and had spent the past decade painting. On Aug. 27 in Vancouver, Wash., of heart failure.