Date: March 19, 1990

Location: BEDMINSTER

Title: Malcolm Forbes Rode Through Life as the Happiest Capitalist Author: John Nielsen

Subject: Billionaire, biker, bon vivant, the publisher did it all-and did it all with gusto

Malcolm Stevenson Forbes was born rich on Aug. 19, 1919 and spent the next 70 years celebrating. He celebrated his wealth and celebrated the economic system that allowed him–or anyone else–to get wealthier. In other people, such sentiments might seem tacky, but Forbes espoused them with such engaging gusto that they became…well, fun. He did a lot for one man–publisher, biker, collector, billionaire, bon vivant, accomplished balloonist, unabashed promoter–and did it all to wonderful excess. It was his way of celebrating life. By the time he died in his sleep of a heart attack on Feb. 24, he had long since retired the title of Central New Jersey”s richest, most flamboyant son.

Forbes was born in New York City, to be sure, but he spent his life on this side of the Hudson, and his resume is pure New Jersey blue-blood: Lawrenceville School, cum laude, 1937; Princeton University, class of 1941; Bronze Star and Purple Heart in World War II. After the war, he joined his father at Forbes magazine. In 1949 he launched a brief political career by winning an election to the Bernardsville Borough Council. Two years later he was elected to the State Senate by a record margin. He remained in the Senate for seven years and in 1957 made a strong but unsuccessful run for the governorship, losing to Democrat Robert B. Meyner. That same year, Forbes” father died. Malcolm inherited the family business and found his true calling.

Over the next 33 years, Forbes built the book that bore his name into a rival of Fortune and Business Week. Where they were aloof and patrician, Forbes was “the Capitalist Tool,” feisty, involved and colorful, rather like its high-profile publisher. Forbes poured the same enormous energies into his business that he lavished on his life, and made little distinction between the two. He owned a chateau in Normandy and a vast collection of Faberge eggs. He partied relentlessly, often with Elizabeth Taylor on his arm. He piloted hotair balloons–in 1973 he made the first solo crossing of North America–and probably did more for the image of motorcycles than anyone since Steve McQueen. Whatever Forbes did, he did with panache–and with a wily eye to its promotional value for the magazine.

The ultimate promotion came last year with his spectacular 70th birthday party in Morocco. The $2 million bash brought together corporate czars and czarinas, celebrities of various stripes, heads of state and more than a few journalists–and sparked a priceless reaction to the birthday boy”s excesses. He was amused by the criticism and found it misplaced. “People think nothing of paying $2 million for a 30second ad during the Super Bowl,” he told an interviewer last fall. “We spent $2 million and got $100 million in free publicity for Forbes magazine.”

As his wealth increased, Forbes may have played to a worldwide audience, but he never really left Central New Jersey. He maintained an estate at Bedminster, and in recent years, he used the region to launch a new venture in smalltown newspapers. In 1987, he bought out the Somerset Press, which ran six papers, with the avowed intention of building the nation”s premier group of weeklies. Today Forbes Newspapers owns 12 weeklies and two shopping circulars, primarily in Somerset and Middlesex counties.

Forbes brought his customary flair to promoting the papers. When the Somerville Messenger-Gazette launched a relief campaign for Somerville, S.C. after Hurricane Hugo last year, Forbes lent the paper his private Boeing 727, the Capitalist Tool, to deliver the goods. The national media were on hand to record the event–just as the happy capitalist predicted. “He loved to do that kind of thing,” says John O”Brien, president and publisher of Forbes Newspapers. “He made every grand opening. Whenever we were launching a new paper, Malcolm would tool up in his Lamborghini and shake hands with the local mayor.”

Though he continued to devote most of his energies to the magazine, Forbes kept track of the papers– often with surprising attention to detail. He would send steady streams of tearsheets from New York City to Somerville, each marked with his characteristic red grease pencil. He even called O”Brien one Sunday morning from the Capitalist Tool, which was somewhere over Montana at the time. One of the papers, it seems, had misspelled a name.

Off the job, Forbes” strongest tie to Central New Jersey may well have been his motorcycle gang, called–what else?–the Capitalist Tools. People joined by invitation only. Says O”Brien, a member in good standing: “It included a cross-section of people–doctors, lawyers, dentists, bikers, police officers– anyone Malcolm met who liked motorcycles.”

Members received a regular newsletter that announced upcoming rides. While the destinations varied, the routine was always the same. The members would arrive at Forbes” Bedminster home at 8 a.m. Sunday for coffee and doughnuts. Then would come the ritual donning of the group”s red vests, each sporting the Forbes logo on the back. Then members would choose among the 72 motorcycles in the garage and hit the road. “Most of the cycles were Harleys,” O”Brien says, “but he had racing bikes, cross-country bikes, every kind. A couple of hundred miles on those Sunday rides was small potatoes.”

Lately, Forbes had taken to launching what he called “air strikes,” rides in response to invitations from biker clubs in other states. On these occasions, Forbes” full-time mechanic would take 20 or so bikes to the destination on Saturday. The gang would then gather at Newark Airport Sunday morning and fly off in the Capitalist Tool. O”Brien recalls one such outing to Manchester, N. H. “The bikes were waiting for us in Manchester, and we spent the afternoon touring the New Hampshire countryside. Everyone was back home by dinnertime.” Only one rule applied on any outing by the Capitalist Tools: never pass Malcolm. He was the leader of the pack.

Now that the leader is gone, his enterprises will continue under 43year-old Malcolm Jr., known as Steve, the eldest of his five children, who succeeds him as chairman of the family business and retains 51% of the company voting stock. Forbes” three other sons, Christopher, Timothy and Robert also hold senior positions in the company. Though the sons face an inheritance tax that could reach $400 million, they have vowed to carry on their father”s policies. But no one expects them to have their father”s spark. Malcolm Forbes was a genuine original. No epitaph could suit him better than the one he wrote for himself: “While alive, he lived.”