Forrest Ross West

Jul 10, 1909 - Nov 18, 1981

F.R. West, ex-official, dies at 72

Former South Bend Building Commissioner Forrest Ross West, 72, of 415 W. Madison, died at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday at Memorial Hospital after a brief illness. He was born on July 10, 1909, in South Bend, and had lived here all his life.

West was a 1931 graduate of the University of Notre Dame school of architecture. He had served as an architect for many years in South Bend before his appointment by former Mayor Lloyd Allen to the building commissioner post in 1963. He served for 10 years.

He also served on the former city planning commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Indiana Administrative Building Council, and was a former administrator for the Northwest office of the Federal Housing Authority.

On March 14, 1942, in Crown Point, he married Kathryn Schuell. She died on June 9, 1977.

He is survived by three sons, John Ross of Atlanta, Ga., Paul Warne of Portland, Ore., and Mark Ross of New York City; a sister, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth West Wilkins of South Bend; and four brothers, Wilber Warne, Paul Henry, and Leo William, all of South Bend, and James Harry of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Services will be Saturday in the Welsheimer Funeral Home, 521 N. William. Rev. Kenneth R. Hemphill, pastor of the Olive Chapel United Methodist Church, will officiate. Cremation will follow. Friends may call from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Friday in the funeral home.

He was a World War II veteran of the Corps of Engineers, a member of the Building Officials and Code Administrators International, a former president of the South Bend Turners, a lifetime member of South Bend Elks Lodge 235, a former president of the American Institute of Architects, an associate member of the Fraternal Order of Police, and a member of the American Association of Retired Persons.

Sources: Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com and FindAGrave.com

05/02/2025 EJS

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167112335/forrest_ross-west