Background
He was the son of William Hathaway Forbes, president of the Bell Telephone Company, and wife Edith Emerson, a daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, nephew of James Grant Forbes and grandson of Francis Blackwell Forbes.
Diplomat private sector banker
He was the son of William Hathaway Forbes, president of the Bell Telephone Company, and wife Edith Emerson, a daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, nephew of James Grant Forbes and grandson of Francis Blackwell Forbes.
Harvard University; Bates College.
He served as Governor-General of the from 1909 to 1913 and Ambassador of the United States to from 1930 to 1932. During the administration of President William Howard Taft, Forbes was governor-general of the Philippine from 1909 to 1913. Previously, during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, he had been Commissioner of Commerce and Police in the American colonial Insular Government of the from 1904 through 1908.
And he was Vice Governor from 1908 through 1909.
As modest legacy from those years of service in Manila, the gated community of Forbes Park in Makati, was named after him. And this community is the residence of some of the wealthiest people in the country.
Also, Lacson Avenue. (Formerly Forbes Avenue) in Manila is still called "Forbes" by some up to the present day.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding sent Forbes and Leonard Wood as heads of the Wood-Forbes Commission to investigate conditions in the The Commission concluded that Filipinos were not yet ready for independence from the United States, a finding that was widely criticized in the
Forbes was appointed by President Herbert Hoover in 1930 to lead a commission charged with investigating the reasons for ongoing minor rebellions in
Forbes was nominated By President Hoover and confirmed as United States Ambassador to, 1930-1932. Forbes received an Doctor of Laws from Bates College in 1932.
He was on the original standing committee of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles from 1941.
He was on the Board of Trustees, Carnegie Institution of Washington and a Life Member of the Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
