LONG BEACH — A former executive director of California state mental hospital and Walnut resident will die in prison for molesting his adopted son over the course of nine years, officials said Wednesday.

Claude Edward Foulk Jr., 63, received a sentence of 248 years in state prison — the maximum sentence allowed by law — from Long Beach Superior Court Judge James Pierce, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s officials said in a written statement. Foulk was also ordered to pay $6,200 in restitution.

He was convicted Feb. 3 of more than 30 counts of child molestation for abusing his adopted son from age nine to 18, prosecutors said.

The abuse took place while the father and son lived in Long Beach, then continued when they moved to Walnut, officials added.

Though the case against Foulk involved only his adopted son, four other men testified during his trial that they were molested by Foulk as far back as 1966, district attorney’s officials said in the statement.

“Additionally, seven other male victims alleged that Foulk sexually assaulted them when they were between the ages of nine and 12 between the years of 1967 and 1984,” according to the statement, though the statute of limitations on any possible criminal prosecution has passed.

Foulk served as the executive director of the Napa State Hospital until he was charged, and subsequently fired, on Feb. 24, 2010.

Foulk also lost his nursing license, officials said. He has worked as a nurse at Children’s Hospital in the 1970s, where he came in contact with one of his alleged victims.