Forrest Preston
{{Short description|American businessman}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Forrest_Lee_Preston.jpg
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| name = Forrest Preston
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1933|3|22}}{{Citation|year=1995|title=220 Anatole Lane NW, Cleveland, Tennessee 37312|publisher=Bradley County Register of Deeds|location=Cleveland, Tennessee|page=3}}
| birth_place = Massachusetts, US
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| education =
| alma mater = Walla Walla College
Oregon State University
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| spouse = Kathleen Marchant (d.2017)
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Forrest Lee Preston (born March 22, 1933) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the founder, owner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Life Care Centers of America, a long-term elderly care company that he founded in 1970.
Early life
Forrest Lee Preston was born and raised in Massachusetts, the son of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor father,{{cite news|last1=Green|first1=Alex|title=How Forrest Preston built Life Care Centers into the biggest privately held company in the industry|url=http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2015/apr/27/how-forrest-preston-built-life-care-centers-biggest-privately-held-company-industry/301066/|access-date=13 September 2015|work=timesfreepress|date=27 April 2015}}{{cite web|url=https://citiesofpromise.com/cities/cleveland-tennessee/|title=Cleveland, Tennessee|date=21 September 2015|website=citiesofpromise.com|access-date=5 November 2017}} Benjamin M. Preston and his wife Ethel Preston.{{cite web|title=Preston, Winton Russell|url=http://www.chattanoogan.com/2010/1/10/166446/Preston-Winton-Russell.aspx|website=chattanoogan|date=10 January 2010 |access-date=13 September 2015}} His father died in 1994, and Preston endowed the Benjamin M. Preston scholarship at Atlantic Union College, of which his father was an alumnus.{{Cite web| title=Following god's leading in our lives | url=http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/ALUG/ALUG19951201-V94-12__C.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101535/http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/ALUG/ALUG19951201-V94-12__C.pdf | archive-date=2016-03-04}}
He was educated at Walla Walla College and Oregon State University. His original intent was to become a medical doctor, and he became a certified X-Ray technician.{{cite news|author=|title=Preston Named Honorary Alumnus of the Year|url=http://portico.leeuniversity.edu/Lists/Campus%20News/CustomDispForm.aspx?ID=1758&RootFolder=%2FLists%2FCampus%20News&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fportico%2Eleeuniversity%2Eedu%2FPages%2Fdefault%2Easpx=|work=Lee University|date=November 12, 2017|access-date=November 20, 2017}}
Career
Preston moved to Cleveland, Tennessee, in the late 1950s a few years after his brother Winton Russell Preston, who had come to study at Southern Missionary College in nearby Collegedale.
Together with his brother Winton, he co-founded a company called Hospital Publications to create patient booklets and public relations materials for hospitals, and the company operated until 1972. The idea had come from his work in hospitals, where he concluded that there was a need for better public relations in the healthcare system. Through this business, he observed the conditions of elderly patients in hospitals, and concluded that there was a need for better long-term care.
In 1970, Preston founded Life Care Centers of America in Cleveland, and is the sole owner, chairman and CEO.{{cite web|title=Executive Profile Forrest L. Preston|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=899206&privcapId=899205|website=bloomberg|access-date=13 September 2015}} It later grew to be the largest privately owned long-term care facility chain and the third largest privately owned long-term care facility in the United States.
As of September 2015, he had an estimated net worth of US$2.1 billion.{{cite web|title=Forrest Preston|url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/forrest-preston/|website=Forbes|access-date=16 September 2016}}
Personal life
Preston was married to Kathleen Marchant (1936–2017) until her death.{{cite news |author= |title=Kathleen Preston |url=http://clevelandbanner.com/stories/kathleen-preston,51080 |work=Cleveland Daily Banner |date=January 23, 2017 |access-date=November 5, 2017 |archive-date=November 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107020859/http://clevelandbanner.com/stories/kathleen-preston,51080 |url-status=dead }} He lives in Cleveland. His residence is located near the residence of fellow businessman Allan Jones. He is of the Baptist faith, and attends First Baptist Church in Cleveland.
He married Kim Phuong Nguyen, his former caretaker, in 2018. In October 2024 his son Aubrey filed a legal complaint against Kim and her family over his father's finances.{{cite news |author=Jemima McEvoy|title=Billionaire's Son Says His Father's Much Younger Wife Is Abusing, Robbing His Dad|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2024/11/09/billionaires-son-says-his-forrest-preston-life-care-fathers-much-younger-wife-is-abusing-robbing-his-dad/ |work=Forbes |date=November 9, 2024|access-date=November 9, 2024}}.
References
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Category:Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Category:People from Cleveland, Tennessee
Category:Walla Walla University alumni
Category:Oregon State University alumni
Category:American company founders
Category:Businesspeople from Tennessee
Category:American chairpersons of corporations
Category:American chief executives