Last month, Spokane Public Schools lost one of its most dedicated public servants, Greg Forsyth, who died in his sleep on April 8 at the age of 64. Forsyth spent more than two decades with the district, first as a math teacher and later as capital projects director with hands in each construction project the district completed.
Forsyth came from a family of educators so it's no wonder he ended up in the same field. His sister and both of their parents were teachers, and his daughter, Ali Daschbach, followed in those footsteps, too. However, his move into the school district's administration was something no one could have expected decades ago.
"My dad and I are the only Forsyths to approach the administrative side of education. But he always said he didn't mean to do the administrative side, so his experience didn't really count," Daschbach, the assistant principal of University High School, says with a chuckle.
Forsyth's journey to district administration began in 2003. That was when Mark Anderson, then the district's associate superintendent, first met Forsyth in the Rogers High School cafeteria during a community meeting about modernizing the building. Then a math teacher at Rogers, Forsyth was deeply passionate about the project, Anderson says.
"It was a very complicated project because we were building around students and staff, so we had to move classrooms and staff and kids during that construction's two-year period, four or five times," Anderson says. "We needed somebody to help us basically work with the staff and the student body, along with the contractor on all the logistics, so I selected Greg due to his passion."
After that project was over, Anderson asked Forsyth if he would be willing to do a similar job as the district modernized Shadle Park High School. Forsyth agreed, and once that project was done Anderson hired him as a project manager. In 2015, Anderson promoted Forsyth to capital projects director, and the two men continued to work together even after Anderson retired in 2021.
In that role, Anderson says Forsyth was part of renovating or adding on to almost every school in the district, and worked on large projects like ONE Spokane Stadium, which opened in 2023. He was still working for the school district at the time of his death. On Saturday, May 10, a public memorial will be held in the stadium at 10 am to honor Forsyth's life and legacy.
In both his professional and personal lives, Forsyth was a calm and positive person who cared deeply.
To his children, he was the kind of dad who was always there when they needed him. When Daschbach was pregnant with her first child, she went into labor unexpectedly. When Forsyth got the call, he made it to a hospital across the state within hours. And when his daughter-in-law's parents couldn't make it to her wedding, he walked her down the aisle instead.
"He was always just a very good calming presence. I suppose that was something that I really relied on him for," his son, Ian Forsyth, says. "I remember this time in baseball when I finally got a hit after what felt like months, you know. And the first place I looked over was at my dad in the crowd, and he was jumping up and down. It was just cool to know that I had someone in my corner the whole time."
While Ian went into a sales career, Daschbach followed her father into education.
"My dad gifted me with a lot of his skills in terms of how to present yourself well, how to speak to people, how to make people feel valued, how to make people feel cared for and important, and I really think that's a lesson anyone could take away from him," Daschbach says. "Everyone has a story for me, but they're not stories of like, 'Oh, I remember when your dad did this,' they're stories of like, 'I remember when I was going through this really hard time, and your dad gave me a hug.' His ability to make those deep personal connections with people was unmatched."
Nicholas Hamad, Spokane Parks & Recreation's planning and development manager, began working with Greg Forsyth on building dog parks throughout Spokane around 2021.
"We had spent time together through a half a dozen to a dozen public input meetings for dog parks, which could be incredibly visceral for people at times," Hamad says. "Whether we were in a room full of passionate people that were either opposing or endorsing what we were doing, and he was always very even-keeled, well-managed, and he never got too emotional.
"What's really cool about Greg Forsyth is he did not care about receiving credit for anything," Hamad continues. "I don't know that my kids or their kids will ever know Greg's name, but his fingerprints will be left all over this city, in parks and in public spaces and in stadiums and in schools." ♦
Gregory Forsyth: Celebration of Life • Sat, May 10 at 10 am • ONE Spokane Stadium • 501 W. Gardner Ave. • legacy.com/us/obituaries/spokesman/name/gregory-forsyth-obituary?id=58158072
