John Wendell Forrest

John Wendell Forrest of Decatur, Ga. left this life on 25 May 2012 at the age of eighty-eight. John Wendell Forrest was born 2 March 1924 in Baird, Callahan County, Texas the seventh and final child of Sena Larmer Forrest (nee Henry) and Jim Lee Forrest. His mother's family were pioneers in the area. His father had come west to Baird from Nacogdoches in east Texas with the railroad.During the Great Depression the family relocated to Pasadena, Texas, near Houston where Jim Forrest worked in the Philips refinery. John grew up in Pasadena, but never forgot the ranching life of Baird and ever after thought of the high plains as his true home. He attended Pasadena High School where he was an outstanding athlete in many sports, but particularly football. He went to Texas A&M in 1941 on a football scholarship; however, World War II had begun, and he, like many other idealistic young men of the time, enlisted. He signed up for the parachute infantry and was made part of the legendary 517th "Battling Buzzards" Regimental Combat Team, one of the U.S. Army's first elite combat units. He was in the first group selected to join this team. They trained near Toccoa, Georgia in the mountains. It was there, at a USO dance, that he met the love of his life, Anne Ruth West. He courted her and won her heart. They were married in Gainesville, Ga. in December 1943 before he and his unit shipped out to Italy. The 517th saw heavy combat from the very beginning in Italy and later in southern France. He received a battlefield commission for his courage and leadership. He was wounded and received a Purple Heart, but returned to his unit and combat once again. He was given the Bronze Star for heroism, and finally, in late summer of 1944 in the campaign for Sospel, in France he was gravely wounded and lost his right leg. That ended his service in the 517th, but for the rest of his life he considered himself a soldier at heart. John returned to his wife in Gainesville where, in 1947, their first child, Sharon, was born. In 1948 they moved to Dahlonega, Ga. where he finished his college education at North Georgia College while working as Assistant Commandant of Cadets. Even before he graduated he was appointed Commandant. Upon completion of his bachelor's degree in 1950, he moved his family to Atlanta so that he could pursue a master's degree in history at Emory University under the GI Bill. Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, he and Anne had their second child, John, Jr. He had a distinguished academic record at Emory, receiving the highest marks ever given in the graduate program up to that time and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After attaining his degree, John taught at Georgia State College for a short while, but found it difficult to enter a tenure track there. One of his friends from military hospital told him about Vocational Rehabilitation which was hiring handicapped veterans to counsel people with various handicaps in order to help them develop skills to live independently and support themselves. He applied, was immediately hired, and loved the work. His superiors recognized his great intelligence and ferocious work ethic and within a short time gave him the responsibility for all treatment centers in the state of Georgia for people with seizure disorders. His education had honed his ability to write well, and he was a gifted public speaker. He began to attract the attention of the regional office of the Federal department of Health, Education and Welfare. They recruited him, and, once again, in short order he was promoted to assistant regional director. During the Johnson administration he was in the front lines of the War on Poverty, and was one of the principal planners of Model Cities, a massive program of slum removal and urban renewal. He was offered an assistant secretary position that would have required a move to Washington, D.C., but by this time he and Anne had built a home in Decatur and added a third child, Angela (born in 1966), to the family. He refused to uproot his family and finished his career in the regional office. During cutbacks and reorganization of the Federal bureaucracy in the Carter administration, he took early retirement in 1979. When their children finished college, he and Anne realized a life-long dream and moved back to Sautee Valley where Anne had been born and raised and where they had built a second home. They settled into country life and joined the Nacoochee Methodist Church. They lived there happily until John developed a difficult to treat glaucoma and had to return to Decatur for extensive treatment. He and Anne lived in their home in Decatur together until her final illness. He nursed her through the last four and a half years of her life until her death at home surrounded by her children on 25 November 1996. He continued living in their home, was an active member of Oak Grove United Methodist Church, and frequently attended the reunions of his regiment. He was interviewed for the Library of Congress veterans of World War II oral history project. That interview is one of a representative few that is posted on line http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/loc.natlib.afc2001001.58101). He is survived by his children, Sharon Forrest of Atlanta, John W. Forrest, Jr. and Mary Forrest of Gainesville, Ga., and Angela Forrest-Burge and Brian Burge of Mansfield, Ga. He also has five grandchildren, Jonah Seton Graham (now Isabelle Naomi Graham), Richard Ian Forrest, Leslie Catherine Forrest, Abigail Elizabeth Thomas, Hailey Annalyn Thomas, and more friends than can be counted. Viewing will be at A.S. Turner and Sons, 2773 North Decatur Road, Decatur, Ga. 30033 from 6 PM to 8 PM on Friday, 1 June 2012. Funeral services will be at 2 PM on Saturday, 2 June 2012 at the Nacoochee United Methodist Church, 1371 Highway 17, Nacoochee, Ga. 30571, followed by interment in the churchyard.


Funeral Home:
A. S. Turner & Sons
2773 North Decatur Road
Decatur, GA
30033