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David was born and educated in England. He became a Rotarian in 1978 after moving to the United States. He just published his 10th book, Miracles Among Us: The Story of ICAF’s mission to Romania. 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 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. Six years after it was released, Frank Talk has sold 100,000 copies and has been translated into Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese. Past-President Frank and David collaborated on a follow-up book called Frank Talk II, which shows clubs how to retain the members they bring in, and Frank Talk on The Rotary Foundation. The fourth in the series was just released in December 2008: Frank Talk on Leadership. 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 Weichert Realtors 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, elder, and mission committee chairman. As a Rotarian for 30 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.
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 the 25,000-copy first edition was a sellout. Rotary International has just chosen David to author the book celebrating the centennial of The Rotary Foundation, which will be published in 2016
In 2005, the 1.2-million member National Association of Realtors named him the winner of the Good Neighbor Award for his volunteer work.
David lives in Medford, New Jersey with his wife and 17-year-old son. He is a pilot and has spoken to audiences in 100 countries.