Longtime Spokane Public Schools teacher, coach, director of capital projects Greg Forsyth dies at 64

Just after Alison Daschbach watched her childhood golf heroes tee up at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia last spring, there was one person she wanted to call from a pay phone on the course, where cellphones are barred.

For trouble at work, advice with her two toddlers or to gush about golf encounters, Daschbach had to call her dad, Greg Forsyth.

“My dad and I watched the Masters every year when I was growing up; we always watched it together,” Daschbach said. “He would have always been my first phone call.”

Forsyth, who was responsible for coordinating and overseeing construction on dozens of schools around Spokane, died April 8 at the age of 64.

Golf was just one of the ties between Forsyth and his daughter; they also shared an intergenerational connection to education.

Before his 10 years as capital projects director with Spokane Public Schools, Forsyth taught math and coached at a few area high schools – most recently, Rogers in northeast Spokane, where his father and Daschbach each spent time teaching. She now works as an assistant principal at University High School in Spokane Valley.

“He really stepped up to be my person, you know?” Daschbach said.

Those who knew Forsyth professionally recall his signature calm, levelheaded demeanor, useful to balance the needs of students, staff, contractors and architects in his myriad roles in district construction.

“He’s probably built and influenced more schools and staff and students than anyone in the state, really,” said Mark Anderson, senior adviser to the district’s leadership team and former associate superintendent of over two decades.

It was during Forsyth’s eight years at Rogers that he and Anderson first crossed paths 20 years ago, during a meeting to discuss upcoming renovations at Rogers after wrapping up construction on Lewis and Clark.

“The first time I met him, he was very passionate in a big community meeting about making sure that we treated Rogers just as good as we did Lewis and Clark High school in the renovation,” Anderson said.

This meeting launched Forsyth from the classroom to roles in managing construction, planning logistics in projects that involved building around students and staff while class was still in session.

“Greg had such a great way of working across the continuum, everything from students to teachers to contractors, subcontractors, architects that we kept him on,” Anderson recalled, eventually making Forsyth the project manager for a new Ferris High School on the upper South Hill.

While juggling everyone’s needs, Forsyth kept “a focus on what was best for students,” Anderson said, fostered through his many years as a teacher.

“You would hear him articulate that; it was something that was in his core,” Anderson added. “The work he was doing would make the learning environments better, for kids to learn better.”

It was evident in one of his recent projects, building the 2-year-old Peperzak Middle School. While on a tour with reporters before it opened to students, he highlighted intentional details meant to give students a sense of ownership over their space: open-concept hallways with cushioned chairs and large stairs in the commons for lingering, play equipment for the middle schoolers still in the throes of childhood.

Forsyth had the foresight to plan for a massive outside courtyard at the school named in honor of local holocaust survivor Carla Olman Peperzak. After construction, Forsyth and others secured a rare sapling descent from a chestnut tree that Anne Frank wrote about in her famous diary, soon to be planted in the spot Forsyth ensured.

Daschbach said it was his personal passion for the Rogers renovation that inspired the care used to manage construction for each of his projects. The baseball field at Rogers is named for his father, Jim Forsyth, who coached and taught there.

“He originally got into this side of it to make sure that the history from my grandparents was honored. And so I think he really, truly understood that Spokane schools, all of those schools, have histories and people have deep ties to them,” Daschbach said. “I think that was a piece that made him just really strong in terms of picking the architecture and the art and just really understanding community needs.”

This intentionality and attention to detail extended beyond his work life. Forsyth’s daughter recalled he was the “most thoughtful” gift giver, picking presents that were useful, personal and memorable like a scooter his 5-year-old granddaughter still plays with or a special necklace for his daughter that she’s had since her 18th birthday.

Better known to his two young granddaughters as “Grandpa with the kitty cats,” Forsyth treasured time spent with Daschbach’s daughters Avery, 5 and Rory, 1.

Daschbach’s most treasured memory is a recent one: She impulsively bought tickets for her and her daughters for a recent women’s NCAA Tournament game hosted in Spokane and roped Forsyth into joining them. Her nerves about how her toddlers would behave at the game quickly dissipated when Rory happily climbed into her grandfather’s lap, content to munch on donuts he always spoiled them with, covering Forsyth in cinnamon sugar.

“He was so happy, I was like, ‘Dad, do you want me to clean her up?’ And he’s like, ‘No, she’s sitting with me; don’t look at her,’ ” Daschbach said. “I have this image in my head of him and Rory just sitting with each other, watching basketball.”

Perhaps counterintuitive given his easygoing, calming nature, Forsyth had a taste for the thrill. He relished time spent on his Harley-Davidson, often taking the scenic route from his condo in Mead to Daschbach’s home in the Valley on their weekend visits, delivering donuts to his granddaughters. He’d also often take day trips on his bike, making the wheat-lined drive from Mead to Pullman or Lewiston.

Through his role coordinating construction, Forsyth’s fingerprints are on dozens of buildings, including each of the five high schools, recently built middle schools Peperzak, Yasahura and Flett, myriad elementary schools that have seen renovations over the decades and of course the downtown ONE Spokane Stadium.

Forsyth’s influence will persist, as he was behind much of the budgeting and coordination of projects the district intends to construct in its long-range facility planning, should they pass a bond initiative.

“I will miss my friend a lot,” Anderson said.

His presence will also linger at U-High, where Daschbach works as an assistant principal. It’s daily, she said, that she thinks of advice her dad would bestow in any given situation. Namely, to make time for people, listen to people, care for people.

“I think I’ll probably just keep that with me the rest of my life,” Daschbach said. “I guess the only thing I can hope is that I have enough of him and me to be like him, and pass those lessons on to my girls too.”

A memorial service for Forsyth is set to be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at ONE Spokane Stadium, for which Forsyth helped oversee the construction.