James Forster may have lived in Dixon since the fall of 1999, but when asked where he was from, he would say DeKalb.
That reply was born from his love of DeKalb, said his daughter, Kathy Schimmoler of Rockford. He was involved on numerous boards, she said, and was the driving force that got the original Kishwaukee Community Hospital built.
“I don’t know of anyone that was as proud of their community or as strong an advocate for the community,” she said of her father. “There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t have done for DeKalb for it to be the best it could be.”
Forster, 90, died of natural causes Monday at Dixon Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center. He was born in December 1917 in Shabbona and spent much of his life in DeKalb, raising his eight children with his wife, Helen, who died in 1999.
According to his obituary, Forster lived by the following motto: “I am only one, but I am one. I can’t do everything, but I can do something. What I can do - that I ought to do. What I ought to do - by the grace of God, I will do,” first attributed to Edward Everett Hale.
“That’s how he lived,” Schimmoler said. “He never expected anyone to do anything he wouldn’t do.”
He worked as a bank auditor and production manager for DeKalb Hybrid Seed Corn Company and was the president and CEO of the DeKalb Bank. He also was the owner of the Forster Implement Company of DeKalb, Dixon, Harvard and Mendota.
He served on numerous boards - many of them as president - in the community, including DeKalb Rotary Club, DeKalb School Board, the Kishwaukee Community Hospital Board and the Kishwaukee Family YMCA Board, according to his obituary.
“He was ‘Mr. President,’ ” said Max Heide, a broker and one of the owners of ERA Elite Realtors in Sycamore.
Heide said he worked with Forster in the 1960s after Forster bought a John Deere dealership in DeKalb. He remembers Forster as a positive person who gave others opportunities to excel.
One of the projects Heide remembers Forster being most passionate was getting a hospital built in the city. His drive resulted in KCH opening its doors in 1975, according to information in KCH historical files. Forster helped raise nearly $3 million of the $10 million needed for the project. A bronze plaque was hung in Forster’s honor in the new hospital building, citing him as “the father of KCH,” according to a statement from KCH Administrator Brad Copple.
“Back in the late 1960s, Jim was the visionary behind the development and opening of Kishwaukee Community Hospital to enhance health care in our community,” Copple said in a statement. “His tireless efforts and dedication were the catalyst to the establishment of many valuable services, services available in the community today that would not be here without his leadership.”
Schimmoler said that her father would downplay his influence, noting that he never wanted recognition or awards for what he did. His life was about serving others, she added.
He did stress the importance of education, Schimmoler said, and encouraged his eight children to “be the best we could be” and to establish a career in a field they enjoyed.“
One of the things he always said was, ‘If your profession becomes a job and work, then maybe it’s not the right one,’ ” Schimmoler recalled. “I think he truly, truly enjoyed everything that he did.”
Added Heide: “He was a wonderful person. The world is going to miss him.”