Forbes McKee Meston
Stonington – Forbes Meston, 95, of Stonington passed away March 1, 2021 at Stoneridge in the presence of his family following a brief illness. Forbes is survived by his daughter, Susan, her children, Matthew and Jake and Jake’s wife Chelsea of Salem, CT and his son David of Stonington, CT. His wife, Patricia and Sister, Margaret predecease him.
Forbes was born in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1925, to Archibald Meston and Florence McKee. He grew up in Bound Brook, NJ with his younger sister Margaret.
Forbes attended Cornell University and Colgate University in 1943 as part of the Navy’s V-12 Officer training program, which was implemented to augment the Naval Academy during World War II and was deployed to the South Pacific in May of 1945. He earned the Victory, American Theatre, Asiatic-Pacific, and Philippine-Liberation Medals. He was serving as a Quartermaster aboard USS Argonne (AG-31) in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945 when Japan surrendered. He was honorably discharged in May of 1946.
Forbes received a BA degree in Economics from Lafayette College in 1950 where he formed many lifelong friendships within a fraternity that included many other men returning from military service. Following graduation Forbes was employed as a Cost Analyst with the Ruberoid Co. at the Bound Brook, NJ and Erie, PA facilities until 1956.
In 1951 Forbes married Patricia (Pat) Nolan of Westfield, NJ. Pat very much enjoyed their time in Erie where the young couple met and got to know many well known musicians as a result of her employment as assistant to the business manager of the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra.
Forbes accepted an offer to become comptroller of Ludlow Valve Manufacturing Co. of Troy, NY., in 1956 where daughter Susan was born in 1957. Following promotions to Treasurer and Vice President at Ludlow, he accepted a staff accounting position with Thermos Division King-Seeley Thermos Co. of Norwich, CT in 1960. Family tradition has it that motivation for this move was based on Pat’s number one wish to live in a beach community and have their children grow up swimming, boating and fishing inspired by her own childhood summers on the Jersey shore. Son, David was born in 1961 and the family moved from Gales Ferry to Mumford Cove in 1965, a neighborhood surrounded by Fishers Island Sound, Bluff Point State Park and Haley’s Farm (now also a State Park). In 1969 Forbes was promoted to comptroller, a position held until retirement in 1985.
Family life centered very much on the tight knit communities of Mumford Cove, Groton Long Point and Noank and close ties with the many families with school age children. Teenage David was inspired by his father’s enthusiasm for the mountains during annual week-long hut-to-hut hikes in the white mountains of New Hampshire to later in life take multi-month mountaineering vacations in the US and Canadian Rockies, New Zealand and Nepal. Many of the close friends from those days continued to exchange news and well wishing replies to yearly facebook posts of Forbes birthday pictures.
Forbes and Pat spent numerous post-retirement winters out west in Albuquerque, NM, Yuma, AZ and Palm Springs, CA exploring Southwest and Indian cultures. They became enthusiastic supporters at the little league games of Susan’s children, Jake and Matthew, and Forbes recently had the pleasure of attending Jake’s wedding to Chelsea nee Matarese in October of 2019.
After Pat passed away in 2010, Forbes joined the Stoneridge retirement community and enjoyed numerous friendships and participated in many of the community programs and activities. We know he would want to extend a special thanks to the many staff who made a special effort to make him smile during this last challenging year when Susan’s weekly visits were restricted to daily phone calls.
We are grateful that he remained sharp and was still able to zip through the most challenging of Sudoku puzzles until the final two weeks of his life. We will all miss him greatly.
An interment of ashes ceremony will be held at the Noank Baptist Church Memorial Garden at a later date this spring.
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