Forest City Gear hosted a tour for students of the Gleason Gear School on September 20, 2023. For more than 70 years, Gleason Cutting Tools' school has led seminars in Rockford, IL on math, gear theory, and the required tooling, manufacture, and inspection of gears. 

Fred Young, 80, former president and CEO, Forest City Gear passed away on July 17, 2023. A graduate of Harlem High School, class of 1961, Young obtained his BA in English Literature from Rockford University, class of 1965, and went on to spend a year in the Navy Reserves. After spending nearly 40 years as an adventuring bachelor outdoorsman, he met the love of his life, Wendy Nutter, marrying her on the banks of the Wolf River on June 6, 1981. Fred’s greatest joys were his three daughters, whom he taught to always seek adventure, bestow kindness and generosity, treasure friendship, and work hard and play hard. Fred took over the family business, Forest City Gear, in 1967. Founded by his parents in 1955, Fred took the small mom-and-pop shop to a global level, leading the company to manufacture some of the world’s most difficult gearing for amazing end uses from NASA’s Martian rovers and space station to robotic arms and racing yachts.

It is with great sadness that Forest City Gear announces the death of Fred Young, former president and CEO. Fred took over the family business, Forest City Gear, in 1967. Founded by his parents in 1955, Fred took the small mom-and-pop shop to a global level, leading the company to manufacture some of the world's most difficult gearing for amazing end uses from NASA's Martian rovers and space station to robotic arms and racing yachts.

Forest City Gear, an industry-leading manufacturer of fine and medium pitch custom gears, is proud to announce the hire of Chris Hart as Supplier Quality Engineer. Some of his responsibilities in this role include conducting supplier audits and on-site visits, issuing corrective actions to suppliers, and working to improve the partnerships with all our suppliers.  

Forest City Gear has expanded its capacity for the grinding of high-precision internal and external gears with the addition of two Kellenberger K100 cylindrical grinders.

Mark Javurek, Process Engineer at Forest City Gear, was chosen to judge for the TE&E Regional High School Competition, organized by CEANCI, in Rockford, IL on April 21, 2023. Since 1987, CEANCI has provided career and technical programming to students from 14 schools in 9 school districts across the Northern Illinois region.  

Three members of Forest City Gear’s board of directors—President Kika Young, Mindy Young, and Appy Mikel—attended the 2023 AGMA/ABMA annual meeting in March. The meeting, hosted by the American Gear Manufacturers Association and the American Bearing Manufacturing Association, was held at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Two Forest City Gear employees, CNC Supervisor Mike Miller and CNC Lead/Programmer Josh Gates, recently attended a four-day training retreat in Pfronten, Germany hosted by DMG MORI. The event featured various seminars and opportunities for guests to experience firsthand DMG’s newest equipment and technologies, as well as networking and a taste of German culture.

Forest City Gear, an industry-leading manufacturer of fine and medium pitch custom gears, is proud to announce the promotion of Zac Denny to Setup Technician. In this role, he will oversee setup and operation of the MZ130 and Koepfer 153 machines.

Forest City Gear recently completed and passed its annual AS9100/ISO 9001:2015 quality system audit. The third-party audit company, Quality Systems Registrar (QSR), evaluated Forest City Gear’s quality management systems to ensure compliance with AS and ISO standards.