B. C. Forbes | |
|---|---|
 Forbes c. 1917 | |
| Born | Bertie Charles Forbes May 14, 1880 New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
| Died | May 6, 1954 (aged 73) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of St Andrews |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouse | Adelaide Mary Stevenson |
Bertie Charles Forbes (/fɔːrbz/; May 14, 1880 – May 6, 1954) was a Scottish-American financial journalist and author who founded Forbes magazine.[1]
Forbes was born in New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Agnes (Moir) and Robert Forbes, a storekeeper and tailor at Whitehill, one of their ten children.[2] Forbes attended University College, Dundee, which was then part of the University of St Andrews.
In 1897, Forbes worked as a reporter and editorial writer with a local newspaper until 1901 when he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he worked on the Rand Daily Mail under its first editor, Edgar Wallace.[3] He emigrated to New York City in the United States in 1904 where he was employed as a writer and financial editor at the Journal of Commerce before joining the Hearst chain of newspapers as a syndicated columnist in 1911. After two years, he became the business and financial editor at Hearst's New York American, where he remained until 1916.
He founded Forbes magazine in 1917 and remained the magazine's editor-in-chief until his death in New York City in 1954, though he was assisted in his later years by his two eldest sons, Bruce Charles Forbes and Malcolm Stevenson Forbes.
Forbes was the founder of the Investors League in 1942.
He died on May 6, 1954.[1][4] In 1988,[2] his body was returned to his native Scotland, and lies buried in the New Deer Churchyard at Hill of Culsh in New Deer, Aberdeenshire. While living abroad, he returned to Buchan every two years, staying in the Cruden Bay Hotel, "to entertain people of Whitehill to a picnic". It was a tradition revived by his son, Malcolm, in 1987.[2]
B.C. Forbes authored eight books:
