Beloved husband, father, and "Papa," Forrest Gene Zander, 89, of Carol Stream, passed away on February 3, 2025.

Forrest (Forrey) was born on May 13th, 1935, to Eno and Dorothy Zander in Harvey, Illinois. He spent many childhood years roaming the woods next to his house in Glenwood, where his parents met while his paternal grandfather was building a house for the man who would become his maternal grandfather. Forrey's parents took him to church from infancy, where he came to know Jesus as his Savior early in life. Then, in elementary school, he recognized that Jesus needed to be more than just his Savior, and he dedicated his life to serving his Lord in whatever manner he was called to.

Painfully shy, he feared that this calling on his life would involve public speaking. But early in high school, he was introduced to mission aviation. He knew he had found his calling! After graduating from Bloom High School in Chicago Heights in 1953, Forrey went on to study Bible and Mission Aviation at Moody Bible Institute. After graduating from Moody in 1956, he did linguistics study in Oklahoma with the Summer Institute of Linguistics and began his career as a missionary bush pilot in Mexico with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

It was in Mexico that he met the love of his life, Margaret Marie Morgan, and they were married in 1958. Soon after their marriage, they were assigned to Peru for language study, then moved to Ecuador where their 2 oldest were born -- Forrest Gene Zander, Jr. (Tinker) in 1960 and Anna Marie (Anita) in 1961. Tragically, Forrest Jr. passed as a baby and they grieved him their whole lives. What a glorious reunion they now enjoy!

While serving in Ecuador, he collaborated in evangelization of the Auca/Waorani who had tragically taken the lives of five missionaries just a few years prior. He flew in and out of the village, serving the translators there and rejoiced in the conversion of so many in the village, which gave testimony to the transformative power of God and His Word.  It reinforced his calling to see the Bible translated into every language on earth.

After three years in Ecuador, Forrey, Margaret, and baby Anita moved to Colombia, where he was responsible for developing and running Wycliffe's new flight program. While in Colombia, they welcomed their second daughter, Arlene Mae, in 1966. While on furlough in Oregon in 1969, Albert Morgan joined the family.

Forrey diligently and passionately served in Colombia as a pilot, Director of the flight program, Associate Director, Director of the Colombia/Panama branch, Director in Bogota, and missions ambassador. In 1979, they moved to the Chicago area, where he completed his B.A. and M.B.A. at Governor's State University, in order to enhance his skills as an administrator. That experience proved useful to him in his new role as Regional Director for the Midwest, where he developed a new, volunteer ministry, marketing service opportunities to local professionals. During this time he also began his 18 years of service as chairman of the committee for Aramaic Bible Translation, working to bring God's word to communities in Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

After retiring as Midwest Regional Director, he redoubled his efforts traveling, speaking and recruiting as a member of Wycliffe's Major Gifts Officer team. He eventually earned the title of top fundraiser for missions projects. He loved sharing the mission of getting God's Word into every language, and vowed to do so as long as his health would allow. In total, he served his Lord through Wycliffe for 60 years. He was also honored by Moody Bible Institute as their 1980 Alumnus of the year, and by Bloom High School, being inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1995.

After the passing of his wife, he was blessed in love a second time by marrying his dear Wanda Jean Dykstra Reid in 2013. Wanda joined him in his speaking ministry and greatly enriched both the length and the quality of his life. His children and grandchildren are incredibly grateful for her loving and tender care of him in these recent years.

As his children and grandchildren can attest, he was a loving father and grandfather. He was the crawl-around-on-the-floor-with and attend-every-event kind of involved dad and Papa. He was a passionate Cubs and Bears fan, and being an avid fisherman and Ham Radio operator rounded out his hobbies. But above all, he wanted everyone he knew to know Jesus as personally as he did and he shared his faith at every opportunity. It was important to him that everyone he meet know that "People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood" (Romans 3:25). We are extremely grateful to God for the life and legacy he gifted to us.

Forrey joins his parents, two of his three siblings, his first wife and son in the presence of our Savior. He is survived by his wife, Wanda, and her daughter, Jeanine Reid, his three children, Anita (Tim) Murphy, Arlene (Randy) Johnson and Alby (Lorri) Zander and his eight grandchildren, Nora Murphy, Charles (Karin) Johnson, Zach (Kass) Zander, Matti (JDrew) Zander McGovern, Colbey (Alivia) Johnson, Leeya Zander, Samson Zander, and Benji Zander, and his first great-grandson, Ezra Zander McGovern.

For those curious to know more about Forrest's life, his book His Faithfulness Reaches to the Skies is available on Amazon.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Wycliffe Bible Translators .

A livestream of the service will be available here: Forrest Zander Memorial Service