Bertha Kathryn Eppley Forwood passed away at her home on Colora on April 17, 2012.
Kathryn born in Carisle, Pennsylvania December 16, 1925. Always known as Kathryn or Kate, she was trained as a pianist, but her heart’s desire was only to become an instrumental band director. Since women at that time were not allowed to be band directors, toward that end, she took all the appropriate courses at West Chester State College. She actually was graduated with a degree in choral music. It should not be surprising that Forwood went into education because her great great great grandfather, Joseph Ritner, had been a pro-education governor of Pennsylvania from 1835 – 1839.
In 1947, she was hired as a choral director in Upper Chichester, a district that later became just Chichester. In 1948, she married William Forwood who had dubbed her Kitty, the name by which her students have known her. Encouraged by the local parents and supported by her husband, she began building an instrumental band. By 1954, the Chichester High School Band was a source of pride in the community.
Forwood retired from teaching after 22 years due to blindness, the result of a brain tumor. In the mid 1980’s, the Forwoods moved to Colora, Maryland to a horse farm. There she was active in the Nazarene Church just next door to her farm. In 1987 she was recruited to direct the Chichester Alumni Band which later became the Chichester Alumni Community Band.
Forwood is survived by her dear friends, Art Allen and Charlene Banks, a brother Robert Eppley, a niece and nephews as well as a host of former students and friends who have loved and adored her.
Services will be held at Rising Sun Church of the Nazarene, 2626 Jacob Tome Hwy, Colora, MD 21917 on Saturday April 21, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Friends and family may call at the church beginning at 10:00 a.m. Burial will be at Mount Zion Cemetery in Allen, PA on Monday April 23 at 10:00 a.m..