BEND — Michael Aldrich Forrester, former East Oregonian editor and former publisher of the Capital Press, died the morning of Monday, Feb. 3, in Bend. He was 86.

He was one of the last of a generation who was acquainted with luminaries such as President John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali and President Richard Nixon, and was a colleague of Phil Knight. During his long career with his family’s newspaper publishing company, Forrester was editor of The Daily Astorian, the East Oregonian and the Capital Press, of which he also was publisher.

His death came at the end of a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was first diagnosed about 1990.

Born in Corvallis in September 1938, Forrester was the son of J.W. “Bud” Forrester and Eleanor Aldrich Forrester. Mike’s cousin, Jacqueline Bedford Brown, was born on the same day. Jacqueline preceded Mike in death in 2009.

Mike Forrester was a graduate of Pendleton High School, class of 1956, and the University of Oregon, class of 1960.

A great opportunity for him and his brother, Steve, was their appointment to be pages in the U.S. Senate, Mike in 1955 and Steve eight years later. It provided a unique aspect of their education. Sponsored by Oregon Sen. Richard L. Neuberger, Mike Forrester was the first Senate page from Oregon in 40 years. Speaking in 2015, Mike told Kathy Aney of the East Oregonian of the 1960 Oregon primary when he had written a brochure promoting John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Forrester described being with Kennedy on the campaign trail for a day in Albany and at Oregon State University.

“At Gill Coliseum, everything I was doing was kind of by the seat of my pants as I was on stage introducing Kennedy,” Forrester said. “I poked fun at the idea of an Oregon student introducing him at Oregon State and then said, ‘But one thing we can all agree on is getting behind Kennedy,’ and I heard in the back Sen. Kennedy say, ‘That’s good — that’s it.’”

Although Mike’s passions were journalism and the news, he got Oregon coach Bill Bowerman’s OK to join the track team and ran the hurdles for two years at U of O. Forrester received the Doyle Higdon Award, which recognized accomplishment in athletics, academics and campus activities. Mike’s campus activities included serving as co-editor of the Oregon Daily Emerald in his junior year.

In 1967, while working for The Associated Press in Los Angeles, Mike had the opportunity to walk alongside boxing great Muhammed Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, conducting a brief interview while Ali made his way through the airport. Mike remembered being the recipient of the boxer’s sense of humor when Ali pulled a practical joke during their walk.

“His on-camera and off-camera demeanor were quite different from one another,” Forrester recalled.

Becoming editor of The Daily Astorian in January 1969, Forrester described his newsroom experience to Aney: “At the Astorian, I had a young group of reporters. We were close in age and orientation.”

Mike married Mary Buchanan Gramson of Warrenton. They had a son, Robert Aldrich Forrester, and Mike adopted Melissa Gramson.

In a family switch in roles in 1973, Mike’s family went to Pendleton, where he became editor of the East Oregonian, and his father and mother came to Astoria, where J.W. Forrester became the Astorian’s editor.

Describing his newsroom management style to Aney, Forrester said: “I had a type-A personality and a lot of journalistic passion. I loved it so much. I overdid things. I put in long hours. I was pretty obsessive.

“I regret I was hard on journalists and didn’t trust their instincts. They did good work.”

After 17 years in Pendleton, Forrester moved to Salem to become editor of the Capital Press, a regional agriculture newspaper, which the family had recently acquired. While in Pendleton, Mike and his wife, Mary, were divorced.

In Salem in 1989, Mike married Pamela Holfert Collins. In retirement, Mike and Pam moved to Pendleton. In 2019, they moved to Bend to be closer to Pam’s son, Timm Collins, and his family. Pam preceded Mike in death in 2021.