Forsythe's family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan when George was a young boy.

Forsythe became interested in computing at a young age, experimenting with hand-cranked desk calculators.

Forsythe earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics at Swarthmore College in 1937, where he was awarded a scholarship.

His teaching career was interrupted by service in the U.S. Air Force and a stint at Boeing.

According to Donald Knuth, Forsythe's greatest contributions were helping to establish computer science as its own academic discipline and starting the field of refereeing and editing algorithms as scholarly work.