Forte H. Sandison

29 Apr Forte H. Sandison

Forte H. Sandison, 66, director of pharmacy at Sibley Memorial Hospital until his retirement four years ago and then the co-owner and director of a funeral home in Gaithersburg, died at Sibley Memorial Hospital Sunday of complications following surgery for cancer.

Mr. Sandison was born in Huntsville, Mo., and graduated from Northwest Missouri State University. He moved to Gaithersburg in 1936. He maintained a home there until his death and had been active in Montgomery County civic affairs. He studied at George Washington and Catholic universities in Washington and graduated from the American Academy of Funeral Service in New York in 1950.

For several years he practiced pharmacy in Washington and its suburbs. In 1961, he became director of pharmacy at Sibley and held that position until his retirement. With his wife, the former Rosabell Gartner, he then operated the Gartner-Sandison Funeral Home in Gaithersburg, with which he had been associated previously.

Mr. Sandison was a member of the Montgomery County Personnel Board from 1956 to 1968 and served as its chairman for several years.

He also was a past president of the Gaithersburg Chamber of Commerce and a past member of the board of directors of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. He was a trustee of the Asbury Methodist Center and a steward of the Grace Methodist Church in Gaithersburg. He was a past president of the Gaithersburg-Washington Grove Fire Department.

In addition, Mr. Sandison was a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, of the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists, of the District of Columbia Pharmaceutical Association, the Public Personnel Association, the Funeral Directors Association of Metropolitan Washington, and the Maryland Funeral Directors Association.

In addition to his wife, of the home in Gaithersburg, survivors include three children, Ernest F., of Riverdale. Calif.; Glen A., of Washington, and Rosalie Ann Wood, of Huntington Woods, Mich., his mother, Mrs. J. Fort Sandison of Gaithersburg; two sisters, Dr. Mildred Fenner Reid, of Washington, and Dorothy Culver, of Silver Spring, and two grandsons.