Mr. David C. Forward
DISTRICT GOVERNOR
A
uthor
Foundation, Frank Talk on Leadership and Frank Talk of Public Speaking.
Together, the Frank Talk series have sold more than 200,000 copies—
generating significant contributions to The Rotary Foundation.
For three years, David represented New Jersey on the White House Conference
on Small Business, and he is a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Medford.
David’s passion is volunteerism, and has initiated and led humanitarian
work trips across America and to the Dominican Republic and Beirut. He
has served his church as deacon and elder, and is a Commissioned Lay
Pastor in the Presbyterian Church. As a Rotarian for 39 years, he served
three times as club president, as well as district conference chairman,
district membership development chairman, State Vocational Assembly
chairman, and District PolioPlus chairman, for which the president of
Rotary International awarded him the Citation for Meritorious Service.
David served as Governor of District 7500 for 2015-16, and when the DGE
resigned six days before her year began, he agreed to continue as Governor
for 2016-2017.
In 1991, David founded International Children’s Aid Foundation and serves
as its president. The all-volunteer foundation has its own orphanage, dental
and medical clinics in Romania and has taught hundreds of abandoned
children early childhood education, vocational training and life skills. David
hosts several groups of volunteers each year who go to Romania on short
term mission trips from all over the world and has visited Romania 70 times.
After reviewing a global line-up of professional writers, a blue-chip panel of
Rotary International officers unanimously selected David Forward to be the
author of the official history book of Rotary. The book,
A Century of Service,
has earned praise from Rotarians the world over and multiple editions have
sold out. Rotary International subsequently chose David to author the book
Doing Good in the World,
celebrating the centennial of The Rotary
Foundation, just published last January. He has just finished his 13th book:
A String of Pearls: Inspiring Stories of how Rotary Peace Fellows are Serving
Humanity and Changing the World.
In 2005, the 1.2 million-member National Association of Realtors named him
the winner of the Good Neighbor Award for his volunteer work. In 2011, he
was awarded Realtor of the Year.
David and Chris are Rotary Foundation Major Donors and live in Medford,
New Jersey. Their son David is an equities analyst with Deutsche Bank.
D
avid was born and educated in England. He became a Rotarian in 1978
after moving to the United States. He just finished writing his 13th
book,
A String of Pearls: Inspiring Stories of How Rotary Peace Fellows are
Serving Humanity and Changing the World
. David has written the book pro
bono and a private foundation has agreed to produce it, and so every dime
from book sales will go to The Rotary Foundation. In 2016, David released
his book
Doing Good in the World: The Inspiring Story of The Rotary
Foundation's First 100 Years.
His other books,
Heroes After Hours, Sales
Superstars, DUH! Lessons in Employee Motivation That Every Business
Should Learn—from the World’s Best (and Worst!) Airlines, Miracles
Among Us, and The Essential Guide to the Short-Term Mission Trip
either
hit the best-seller list or went into multiple printings, and all deal with
either volunteerism or ethical business practices.
David will be familiar to many Rotarians through Frank Talk, which he wrote
for Past RI President Frank Devlyn—the fastest-selling book in Rotary history.
Ten years after it was first released, Frank Talk has sold 100,000 copies
and has been translated into Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Portuguese, Hindi,
Italian, Mandarin, and Vietnamese. Past-President Frank and David
collaborated on follow-up books called
Frank Talk II,
which shows clubs
how to retain the members they bring in, and F
rank Talk on The Rotary
D