Forrest Preston | |
|---|---|
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| Born | March 22, 1933 [1] Massachusetts, US |
| Alma mater | Walla Walla College Oregon State University |
| Spouse | Kathleen Marchant (d.2017) |
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.
Forrest Lee Preston was born and raised in Massachusetts, the son of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor father, [2] [3] Benjamin M. Preston and his wife Ethel Preston. [4] His father died in 1994, and Preston endowed the Benjamin M. Preston scholarship at Atlantic Union College, of which his father was an alumnus. [5]
He was educated at Walla Walla College and Oregon State University. [6] His original intent was to become a medical doctor, and he became a certified X-Ray technician. [7]
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. [4] [7]
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. [4] 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. [7]
In 1970, Preston founded Life Care Centers of America in Cleveland, and is the sole owner, chairman and CEO. [8] 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. [2]
As of September 2015, he had an estimated net worth of US$2.1 billion. [6]
Preston was married to Kathleen Marchant (1936-2017) until her death. [9] He lives in Cleveland. [6] His residence is located near the residence of fellow businessman Allan Jones. [2] [1] He is of the Baptist faith, and attends First Baptist Church in Cleveland. [9]
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. [10]
