21/07/2026
It’s is with great sadness we share that
Longtime NSS-CDS member Forrest Wilson died at the age of 82 last Thursday, July 16, 2026, following a stroke.
Forrest had lived in a care unit with his family nearby in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, for the last several years.
Forrest’s contributions to caving and cave diving are legendary and too numerous to list here. He was the NSS-CDS’s first Training Director and was a long-serving cave diving coordinator for the National Cave RescueCommission (NCRC).
Forrest codesigned the directional line arrow used all over the world today. He improved on Lewis Holtzendorff’s triangular tape arrows (“Dorff markers”) by revising the line slot angles and notches to retain the guideline. He made a first run of 100, and the word spread.
In the CDS’s early years, Forrest worked with
Wes Skiles and Joe Prosser to develop a cave and cavern certification program that has produced more qualified divers than all the other organizations combined.
Forrest’s last dive was at Jackson Blue with his longtime dive partner Mark Wenner, with whom he also made his 500th and 1000th dives.
The next Underwater Speleology will publish a tribute to Forrest to honor his long history of service and his many accomplishments.
Photo description and credit:
Forrest and friends preparing to dive in the
Black Lagoon at Hart Springs. © Jill Heinerth.
