Born: February 20, 1868, Springfield, Vermont.
Died: October 23, 1927, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.
William was the husband of Maude Barden.
He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1888 (Phi Beta Kappa), and became a principal in Amherst, New Hampshire, the next year.
He entered Union Theological Seminary, New York City, in 1889, graduating in 1892. He received an AM in 1890 and PhD in 1892 from the University of New York, and was acting pastor at the Rockaway Church in Brooklyn while enrolled in 1890.
He served as pastor at Riverside Church in East Providence, Rhode Island (1892); Riverside Congregational Church, Riverside, Rhode Island (1893–94); Tabernacle Church, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (1894–96); Warren, Massachusetts (1896–1908); Winthrop Church, Boston, Massachusetts (1905–06); and Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan (to 1913).
In 1913, he became president of the American Institute of Child Life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, resigning in 1914 to pursue writing.
He settled in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and lived there the rest of his life.
For a time he headed the Woolman House, a school of social and religious education under the Quaker management of Swarthmore. In 1895, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana.
He founded the Knights of King Arthur in 1893, which attracted thousands of young boys. In 1918, he became General Editor of the publications of the University Society of New York, serving until 1924, when he became consulting editor of the John C. Winston Publishing Company of Pennsylvania.
If you know where to get a good photo of Forbush (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),