 Foley was recognized as unusually capable by the head of the melting department, Radclyffe Furness, a Harvard-educated chemist, and educated himself in metallurgy and crystallography with Furness's encouragement.In 1912 he contracted tuberculosis, and spent two years in New Mexico and Arizona, where he was cured.In 1915 he married Anne Marie Flaherty, who bore a son, Gerard M. Foley, the following year.