Forrest Lee Preston (born March 22, 1933) is an American billionaire businessman from Massachusetts. He is the founder, owner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of

Life Care Centers of America Life Care Centers of America is the largest privately held long-term elderly care company in the U.S., with facilities across 28 states, and the third largest in the U.S. It is headquartered in Cleveland, Tennessee. History Life Care Centers of ...

, a long-term elderly care company that he founded in 1970.

Early life

Forrest Lee Preston was born and raised in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, the son of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor father, Benjamin M. Preston and his wife Ethel Preston. His father died in 1994, and Preston endowed the Benjamin M. Preston scholarship at

Atlantic Union College Atlantic Union College (AUC) was a private Seventh-day Adventist college in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1882. The college closed in 2018 due to accreditation and financial problems. From 1933 to 2018, AUC was a four-year l ...

, of which his father was an alumnus.http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/ALUG/ALUG19951201-V94-12__C.pdf He was educated at

Walla Walla College Walla Walla University is a Private university, private Seventh-day Adventist Church, Adventist university in College Place, Washington. The university has five campuses throughout the Pacific Northwest. It was founded in 1892 and is affiliat ...

and

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

. His original intent was to become a medical doctor, and he became a certified X-Ray technician.

Career

Preston moved to

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, 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

in Cleveland, and is the sole owner, chairman and CEO. 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.

Personal life

Preston was married to Kathleen Marchant (1936-2017) until her death. 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Forrest 1933 births Living people Businesspeople from Massachusetts People from Cleveland, Tennessee Walla Walla University alumni Oregon State University alumni American company founders Businesspeople from Tennessee American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives American billionaires Baptists from Tennessee