Gwendolyn Deanne Forrester's Obituary
Gwendolyn Deanne Kemper Forrester
April 7, 1946 – October 14, 2025
Gwen is the daughter, granddaughter, and wife of pastors. A loving relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church has been the the hallmark of her life. Gwen has been the glue in our part of the Jesus story who makes our family and its ministry complete. Without her, we would not be.
Her parents became missionaries with The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Central America soon after she was born, and she spent 11 of her early years in Panama, Cuba, and The Dominican Republic.
After graduating high school, she undertook the Nursing Program at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1968. After receiving her nursing license, she began working at Porter Memorial Hospital in Denver, Colorado. There she met Kay Collins, the sister of the man with whom she was to spend the remainder of her life joined in marriage and ministry.
In 1970, at Kay’s urging, Gwen began corresponding with her (unbeknownst to her or him) future husband who was then a Naval Officer Candidate studying at Purdue University. (If you don’t believe this woman had an adventurous spirit, this sheltered church mouse was “interested” in a rowdy, often drunken sailor!) They first met in August, and after the Holy Spirit drew Dale into a renewed fellowship with Jesus Christ and a brief courtship, they were married on the 27th of December of that year. Thus began a new page in her life adventure.
Dale felt the calling to gospel ministry along with the calling to marry this awesome woman. He asked the Navy to release him from the officer candidate program and to release him from active duty to pursue a theological education. After an awesome 6-month honeymoon in Indiana, they flew to Honolulu, Hawaii where they were stationed until he was discharged. Three weeks later, they were at Gwen’s Alma Mater where she worked as a public health nurse in Lincoln and Dale was a theology student.
After college for Dale, it was off to seminary and a very pregnant Gwen drove to Berrien Springs, Michigan following the U-Haul truck. Nathanael Christian was born a month after their arrival, and Gwen juggled a baby and a part-time nursing job while Dale worked as a maintenance man and went to class.
Gwen took Ruth’s, “wither thou goest, I will go,” to Naomi as her life vow. While pastoring churches all around Colorado (a story for a later time), Jedidiah James was born in Salida and Joshua Stephen did the same in Wray, Dale felt God calling him to military ministry and Gwen, as she always did, said, “Well, if that is what God is calling you to do, let’s do it.” They went into the Army in 1984 at Fort Hood, Texas, and Gwen spent the next seventeen years serving military chapels as a pianist, organist, and women’s ministry (Protestant Women of the Chapel) leader, and, more importantly, raising three boys to become young men glorifying God and serving him faithfully. She played the piano (her favorite instrument) or organ for thousands of worship services in churches and chapels throughout her life. She was the musician for both Protestants and Catholics in their worship services in the chapels in Germany. She had a lovely touch at the keyboard and was a true minister of music.
It would be a mistake to think Gwen weak. She moved her boys, ages 11, 6, and 4, and her household from Texas to Germany all by herself as Dale had gone on months earlier, and there she made the quarters a home for her family. This was the first of many not-a-whimper-or-complaint Army moves, several at Christmas when she helped her boys celebrate the birth of their savior while living in a hotel room, to New Jersey, Georgia, Hawaii, Washington, retirement, and then to Korea and back to Germany as co-director of a military support ministry, and finally back to Washington, back into the Army, and then to Graham and The Ridge Bible Church where life settled and she was able to be the proverbial grandmother who doted on her flock.
Being a mother to three sons (she’d say, wonderful, awesome, the best there ever were.), loving their wives like her own daughters, and seeing 12 grandchildren come into the world and grow towards or into adulthood was the highlight of Gwen’s life. She never forgot a birthday, an anniversary, a graduation, and when and where physically possible, a recital or a game. And while outdoor camping wasn’t her favorite thing, she loved going to Mayfield Lake with the beautiful community we shared with the Jed & Angie family. Gwen loved family, her family and the families that were part of her circle, and the family loved her back. I’m sure there are some cherished memories to be shared at our after-gathering!
The story of Gwen cannot be told without making her patient endurance with her cancer struggle a big part of her life story. Gwen was first diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer in the Spring of 1994. Naturally, Dale was off on a TDY when she first heard the news, but her chaplain-wife sisters rallied to her side. She had the full course of surgery, radiation, and chemo, and was told women with cancer this advanced seldom survived five years. She did. Then came another breast cancer, an oral cancer that threatened to take away her ability to speak clearly (it did not), a very aggressive and persistent cancer in her liver, lung cancer (no, she never smoked!), and numerous basal cell cancers. Yes, 31 years of cancer took some of the bounce out of her step, but it never took the joy of family, church, and the promised eternity with Jesus out of her heart.
During almost 55 years of marriage, Gwen demonstrated what it means to be a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a daughter of God. Her love was a constant within the family, the church, and the community. We will soon commit her body to the ground in anticipation of Christ’s Return and the Resurrection of his family. This is a woman who never said, “No,” to a new page in her life story. Gwen has heard the voice of our Lord saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.”, and she turned to that new page. She leaves to await the resurrection, her husband, Dale, her sons and their wives, Nathanael & Paige, Jedidiah & Angie, Joshua & Megan, her twelve grandchildren, her brother, Dr. Ed Kemper, sister, Brenda Purdy and their families, and thousands of Christian brothers and sisters whose lives she has enriched. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Maranatha.
Please join us in the annex to continue the celebration of this amazing life.
What’s your fondest memory of Gwendolyn?
What’s a lesson you learned from Gwendolyn?
Share a story where Gwendolyn's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Gwendolyn you’ll never forget.
How did Gwendolyn make you smile?
