TOM FOUST RETIRED FROM THE NATURAL PATH ON FEB. 13 AFTER OWNING THE BUSINESS FOR 19 YEARS. PICTURED IS FOUST AND HIS WIFE, MARY. Erin Tierney/The Creswell Chronicle
Tom Foust, owner of The Natural Path at 65 W. Oregon Ave., and his wife, Mary, celebrated the shop’s last hoorah on Wednesday, Feb. 13 with cake, coffee and community drop-ins.
He’s been in this community since 1972, and has been the sole proprietor of The Natural Path for 19 years. With 600 regular customers, Foust, 70, will surely be missed by the community in his retirement, though he looks forward to entertaining his hobbies of BMW motorcycles, fishing and RC airplanes, now that he’s done with the nine-to-five.
He and Mary also have nine grandkids, including a one-year-old in Salt Lake City who’s ”smarter than all of us,” Foust said. They are eager to visit soon.
It’s been a good run, Foust said, all stemming from community member Monica Knight years ago. Knight started up the shop 29 years ago, focusing the shop’s inventory on holistic medicines before selling it to Foust in 2000, he said. He carried on with the products Knight curated, and have been serving locals, doctors and non-locals ever since at the shop.
Of his 600 customers, about half of them are locals, Foust said.
But he’s not leaving his customers high-and-dry.
”I have found the most exciting person to take over the store, Chelsea Pisani,” Foust said. Pisani is a licensed massage therapist and used to work at Creswell Chiropractic before its doors closed last year.
In a fun twist, Pisani has bought The Natural Path, but their inventory will be just across the street at the former chiropractic office at 24 W. Oregon Ave.
There, Pisani performs massage therapy and sells Foust’s homeopathic medicines.
Pisani and her staff, ”will continue to offer the highest quality and service to their customers and doctors,” Foust said.
Creswell Health and Wellness Center opened on Monday, Feb. 18 after intense bouts of construction, hustle and government shutdown hiccups. A spotlight on their business will be in an upcoming edition.
”I want to thank all the people who supported this business for 29 years, 19 of which I have been privileged to be a part of,” Foust said.
