Nancy Forster

Nancy Keeney Forster

 Nancy Keeney Forster died in her home in Belvedere on November 13, 2013. She was 85 years old. Born in 1928 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Roger B. Keeney and Catherine Baldwin Keeney, Nancy attended the Baldwin School and graduated from Stanford University in the class of 1950.

  In 1949 Nancy married Clifton Forster and they moved to the Philippines to work in the US Information Agency. In 1953 the couple relocated to Japan, where Clifton managed American Cultural Centers for three decades. Nancy's lifetime work with her husband was to build understanding between cultures. She taught world history in international schools from 1960s until the 1990s. In the 1970s Nancy became involved with the International Baccalaureate (IB), now a worldwide network of advanced bilingual international high schools. In 1986 she started the first IB school in Hawaii. In 1994, Nancy became the founding director of the California Organization of World IB schools. She was a founder of Marin Villages, a volunteer service for home-based seniors in Marin County. She was a member of the vestry at St. Stephens Episcopal Church.

 At the age of 80 Nancy published Encounters: A Lifetime Spent Crossing Cultural Frontiers, which tells the story of her husband's wartime imprisonment by the Japanese and their life together. In 2011, she co-edited Journeys in Learning Across Frontiers, a compilation of testimonies from around the world about the impact of IB schools. Her las book, A Culinary Journey: Recipes and Reminiscences of an American Diplomat's Wife was published earlier this year.  

 Nancy is survived by her brother Roddy, three children, Thomas, Cindy and Douglas, nephew Charles, niece Karen, and five grandchildren, Nathan, Taylor, Makala, Wyn and Callum. Gifts in memory of Nancy may be made to Marin Villages, 930 Tamalpais Avenue, San Rafael, CA 94901, or Academia Semillas Del Pueblo School 4970 Huntington Dr. S, Los Angeles, CA 90032.