Detroit Free Press -- ADA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A Kent County soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Defense Department has confirmed.

U.S. Army Maj. Gregory Fester, 41, of Ada Township, died Tuesday while on foot patrol about 30 miles south of Baghdad, the Defense Department announced Thursday. His wife had earlier confirmed his death.

Fester was a reservist assigned to the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Fester worked with Iraqi officials to improve schools, his wife Julie said. He e-mailed her every day and said many of the Iraqis welcomed him. She had

"He loved his mission. He believed in it," Julie Fester told The Grand Rapids Press.

Fester grew up in Westerville, Ohio, and graduated from Westerville North High School and Ohio State University. He served in the Army for 8 1/2 years, including a stint in Operation Desert Storm, before taking a job in pharmaceutical sales at Pfizer Inc.

The family lived in New York at the time, where he continued to serve in the Army Reserves. He quit the Reserves after Pfizer transferred him to Grand Rapids in 2001.

Julie Fester said her husband was ordered back to active duty on April 15, and was expected to serve through November 2006.

The couple's 18th wedding anniversary would have been Monday. They have two daughters, 16 and 13 years old, and a 6-year-old son.

Fester was the 58th member of the U.S. armed forces with known Michigan ties to be killed in Iraq.