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Kind and Honorable

June 13, 2014

I will say when I briefly worked for KFYI in '91 - '92, I filled out an application, at the front desk, and presented my resume. A week or so later I got a call back from a man who sounded not like a talk host, but rather a real non-radio person who was smooth, cool and well calculated. I couldn't have been more wrong on the non-radio part.

I interviewed with Forrest, It went well, I was hired on in an entry level position. I worked at that time with some of the market's best when it came to working at KFYI Forrest made certain I learned, grew, had opportunity, and plenty of tasks that medw me move forward. I remember a night in peticular where Forrest cam in and filled in for a host unannounced to myself ot the previous host. I was literally about as nervous as I could get just being a new hire with 2 weeks under my belt. Forrest was cool, almost like a brother, or a good friend. Sure I made some minor mistakes, but still it was like nothing happened.

I used to call him "Papa Smurf" as his beard kinda reminded me of the fictional cartoon charicter. His humer always without fail had me smiling or laughing even when I was in a busy period of my shifts.

After I left KFYI and went to KFNN where I interned before working at KFYI I ran into other alumni of KFYI systematically over the year and then some I was there. Still keeping touch with Forrest.

About 2010, I reached out to locate Forrest, and found him in the DC area, Asked him for a reference letter and endorsement on Linked-in. He was so glad to do it, which I thought would never happen. Over the next 2 or so years we chatted on Facebook Messenger, When I saw this link today I about went into tilt.

Forrest is in a much better place mentoring young talent, and doing what he always wanted to do.

God Speed "Papa Smurf" - Without a doubt, You were one of the best! RIP.

July 14, 2013

Forrest and I met at Northern Arizona University. I don't remember it, at all. But he did. He said that while we were working together at KNAU, I had made some sort of snarky comment, and his first thought was, "who the hell does she think she is?" Apparently he found that intriguing.

After we graduated, I had moved to Phoenix and took a part-time job with The Broadcast Group which owned KKFR-FM, and 910 KFYI, a news talk station that had just launched. I worked as a weekend dee jay and learned that our AM station was in need of a Master Control Operator. I encouraged him to apply and he got the job. He stayed longer than I did (1986-1994) and was promoted first to Newsroom Associate, and then to Assistant Program Director. He produced and submitted the annual radio award entry tape that earned the station "Best Talk Show" 6 years in a row, beating out long time Valley stalwart 620 KTAR. He was recognized with more than 6 awards for news documentary productions. And he airchecked and archived all the talk show hosts on the air from time to time. At the 25th anniversary of the station, it was discovered, that after Forrest left, there were no archives beyond the station's first 6 years to play at the party.

One of my favorite stories about Forrest came out of that job. While he was working as a board op early one Sunday morning, he was watching the security camera outside the front door. It was there to identify the after hours employees needing to enter the buidling, and long before security cameras were commonplace. The Sunday paper had been delivered but Forrest had not had a chance to bring it in. A hobo looking guy was just about to steal the newspaper, when Forrest came on the speaker and said, "no, no no, put that down." The thief immediately dropped the paper and ran off.

Concurrent to his time at KFYI, Forrest was a researcher for a private investigator. He also worked at KFNN after he left KFYI in 1994, although I don't remember what capacity, because by that time I was in Denver, Colorado.

In 1999, Forrest became a freelance researcher, writer, publicity coordinator, and speech writer. His specialty was helping non-profit organizations identify potential philanthropic benefactors. He was a consummate fact-checker and could track down any piece of information you needed, whether it was dirt on your ex-sister-in-law, a good wine, or how the traffic was flowing when you were driving around the Beltway. His passion was helping military veterans find jobs and a sense of purpose when they came back from the war. This included the K9 units too.

He wrote articles for NoVa magazine during Update Your Resume Month on the latest resume tips. Other article submissions included The Arizona Republic ("Why We Move From Home" 7-14-00),  and a contribution to the Buzz on Golf, a humorous book targeted to Gen-Xers. Forrest also evaluated local restaurants and wrote movie previews for Phoenix Downtown Magazine. And he wrote speeches for Military Heroes Banquets and Galas. If I remember correctly, he wrote a speech given by Gary Sinese, and another for Alan Greenspan.

Forrest and I always stayed in touch. He told me about his brush with crime although not immediately after an incident occurred. On one occasion an armed gunman approached him in a parking lot after dark as he was leaving a Barnes and Noble and demanded his wallet or he would kill him. Apparently Forrest was going through a rough period and responded, "go ahead and pull the trigger, you'd be doing me a favor anyway." The gunman was so mortified, he called Forrest a crazy M-Fer and ran off.  In the past year or two while in Baltimore he was in a 7-11 and helped to stop an armed robbery in progress by locking the door and calling 9-11 while other customers apprehended the suspect.

He was a good friend, who also heard all my boyfriend fiasco stories through the years, and came to visit me in Denver and later when I was in Roanoke, Virginia. After my niece was murdered in the Virginia Tech shootings we became closer, talking on the phone 3-4 times a week. He helped me produce a job search radio show on Fox 910 in Roanoke called "Career Matters." He airchecked every show  and sent me story ideas. He even helped me write resumes for some high tech executives (I own a resume service), and sent me inspirational books when I was sick and needed surgery.

The last time I saw Forrest was in early December of  2012, when I paid him a visit in Baltimore. He took me and my spouse all over the city on a sight seeing tour. We visited Caribou Coffee and Max's Tap House, the Harbour, and many of the statuesque parks. After that we kept more in touch more by email and through than by telephone. He told me his health issues that he had a few years ago had returned but he was on the road to recovery.

I will be forever grateful for his friendship. He was a sounding board, a non-judgmental friend, and an all around funny guy. When I was really mad at someone, he suggested writing a really nasty letter, and then sign it "Yours in Christ." Then we both would laugh it off. Well Forrest, I'm mad (and sad) that you're gone. But I hope you finally found the peace you deserve. Thanks for being a part of my world.

 

 

Forrest is my longest close friend

July 14, 2013

Forrest and I met at Northern Arizona University. He started as a junior, I think, because he attended two years at Phoenix College. It was either my freshman or sophomore year. It must've been my sophomore year although I can hardly remember college without him which is why I sometimes think freshman. So it was probably October 1984. It was a running joke with us that Forrest not only remembered the exact date we met but that he remembered the exact day of the week (I think he said it was a Wednesday) and he remembered all of the details. I'm glad he did because it would mark the beginning of a lifelong close friendship and him becoming a part of my family.

We met at the campus radio station, KRCK, and both held management positions there. In fact we ended up being the ones that eventually ran the station--me as Station Manager and he as Program Director. I was the political force and he...as he always is...was the brains and the one that made it happen. Everyone I knew in college procrastinated everything, including myself, but not Forrest. He was a 'do-it' kind of guy. He was also the only student in college that carried a briefcase. So Forrest.

I later followed him to the NPR affiliate on campus, KNAU-FM. I was just an announcer there but he handled so much for that station including all of the network feeds. I was blown away by all that he did there.

In addition to Radio/TV, I was also into Theater (my other major) and dragged him into my world there. I even got him to be in a play I was directing (my first full-length play), "The Dining Room" because I didn't have enough guys to be in it. He did well and he gave it his all and even though he was nervous performing, he did it for me because I needed him to. That's the kind of friend he was. I think he enjoyed it and it helped bring him out of his shell. That was our relationship. I brought him into the world of my crazy theater friends and performing (he also got stuck being in several of my TV projects and several short film projects I did after college) and he thrived. He was the responsible one who got things done. We co-wrote a play in college that won 3rd place in the college playwriting contest, and we produced all 3 of the winning plays at KNAU--me as the director and he as the producer (which meant he did 95% of the work) and we both performed in them. He was brilliant even in college.

I was the loud outspoken attention-getting one and he was the one who got everything done. If he were here right now I would start singing "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and he would say "Don't make me slap you."

Forrest had many friends in both Telecommunications and Theater at NAU including the amazingly talented and funny Susan Geary, who, to this day made her dream come true and was really on the radio (you go, girl).

In college Forrest was every woman's 'guy' friend that you could count on if there was a problem. One time when my three roommates and I heard sounds coming from this storage room basement below this removated bar where we lived, we called Forrest to come over and help us. He was our strong guy who went outside with a flashlight and 3 girls following.  I was on guard inside and heard my roommates screaming and running back inside. It seems that a skunk peeked it's head out of the basement window. It took awhile for us to get rid of that skunk and the smell.

After college when Forrest moved to Phoenix he lived in a 12-unit studio apartment complex my parents owned. There he met his very dear friend, Laura Durant, who really is the master of the entire Phoenix Theater/entertainment scene in Phoenix. Forrest worked in radio in Phoenix and those that worked with him can better fill in those details as I moved to California in 1987--first San Diego for graduate school and a year later Los Angeles.

[The rest of exactly when Forrest lived where are a bit fuzzy for me. I wasn't good at keeping track of that. Forrest was the one who remembered all of that with his very scary memory and I'm sad that I can't ask him. I may have some of it in my handwritten journals but I'm in Phoenix on vacation and not at home in L.A. to look it up.]

Around 2000 Forrest lived with me, and then later for a time with both myself and my future wife, Nina Minton. I remember that he was living with us because he watched our cats while Nina and I took our unofficial European honeymoon (before we could legally get married in California) in the summer of 2002. Forrest liked Los Angeles but didn't love it as it's not the best commuter city as he'd given up his car. I think he went to Oregon after that.


It was either the late 90's, in-between living with me in 2000 and 2002, or shortly after, that he lived with my mother, Sally. After my parents were divorced and money was tight for Forrest, he rented the guest room in my mother's house in the Sunnyslope area of Phoenix. I felt good about it as I was glad he was there to watch out for my mother during this rough time, and my mother felt close to him and treated him like a part of the family.

So, at some point he went to Oregon (Bend and Portland I think) and later back east near Washington, DC and then Baltimore. There are others who can better fill in those pieces of the complex puzzle that was our dear friend, Forrest.

As Carolyn said below, he was a Renaissance Man and it's funny to think that several separate people have coined that phrase for him. He wrote, painted, and cooked. I will never forget the first dinner he made for me in his college dorm room. I don't remember the entire meal but I do remember that he cooked eggrolls in his toaster oven with a special sweet sauce to dip them in and we had a port wine for dessert (the drinking age was 19 then so we were legal). I hadn't known him very long then and I thought "Eggrolls and port wine? Who is this guy?" He later introduced me to a casual chinese restuarant with a cheap lunch special that became one of our frequent haunts in college. (We may have lived a past life in China together.) In Phoenix we continued our love for Chinese food and even though I don't drink coffee we loved to hang out late on those hot summer nights at a coffee shop at the Biltmore mall and have long talks.

Forrest was the kind of friend you could talk to and always count on to be there emotionally for you--always caring, always without judgment, and always trusted to keep things just between the two of you. He listened to all my boyfriend troubles and was one of the first people I came out to when I felt in love with a woman. Everyone in my family knew Forrest.  I was sad that he didn't stay closer to his own family but Forrest couldn't be persuaded to do what he didn't want to do and so, at least, I could make him a part of mine. I'm glad to hear that over the last few years he had started to reconnect with his own family. I know that the loss of his sister just a few months ago hit him very hard.

Forrest was the kind of friend that even if I hadn't spoken to him in months we could pick up the phone and talk as initimately as we did when we saw each other several times a day in college. Forrest was always watching out for me too. The TV show I worked on, "CSI:NY" was on the verge of being cancelled in February and Forrest was sending me internet links for leads on pilots. Even as recently as this past May Forrest was sending internet links for possible job connections -- never letting on how really bad his health was--thinking of me first.

Forrest and I had so many chapters of our lives together and I can't believe there won't be any future chapters together. I just never imagined we wouldn't grow old together. I will very much miss my lifelong friend, Forrest. My dear friend Forrest, I will miss you so much.

 

Forrest-isms

July 14, 2013
When someone passes I always remember this quote: “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss So here Forrest I'd like to share our unique friendship. We met when he came to work with me at KFNN. The first line can sometimes set the tone for an entire relationship. He walked up to me all formal, business like and struck me as being so uptight. I had been told his previous employment had been stressful and so he was pursuing other avenues with us. So after he went on a bit I replied with, "it's okay Forrest, you are among friends here." He looked at me a bit perplexed for a beat and then he burst out laughing. This was the beginning our great friendship. He was my office mate and we shared the room with a reporter who was editing the new feeds so we heard all thing both funny and horrific. We developed a sick sense of humor and We would pipe up with the line, "see you in hell bastards!" I can still hear his voice in my head now. It was that or cry at the sorry state of humanity. We learned a lot from each other, we wrote copy together and even had a blog together. I always called him a Renaissance Man, because he had many talents and interests. He painted, he cooked, he was an incredible writer and all around one of my wittiest friends. It's hard to find any friendship that you can be truly yourself with but with Forrest, you all know, that part came easy. Once after he moved he conspired with my husband and surprised me. I came home from work and there was Forrest making a delicious dinner in my kitchen! Forrest was part of a production of a play and he took the bus at lunch to there sometimes. When they rapped, he was given a box of chocolates as a thank you. He said, "So it dawns on me that, I'm sitting at a bus stop, I have a box of chocolates there AND my name is Forrest." Well Forrest, although " life is like a box of chocolates--you never know what you are going to get." What I got and what you got out of your brief, but colorful life was a remarkable friendship that rivals all others. Your friends are unique they are not a relationship based on an obligation or circumstance, they are only there because they want to be. I'll miss our long chats and holding court on the human condition. Oh how I will miss you. RIP Forrest

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