Edward H Forgotson

1934 - 2019

Edward passed away on the Fourth of July after a long illness. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he grew up in Shreveport, LA with his oil wildcatter father and concert pianist mother. After graduation from

Byrd high school, he received his BA from the University of Texas at Austin, and went on to receive an M.D. with honors from Washington University in St. Louis. Rather than pursue a life in medicine, he returned to the University of Texas and earned a J.D. with honors.

His first job took him to Washington, D.C. and the Atomic Energy Commission, as Legal Assistant, Office of the Commissioner. In 1963 he went to work for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and a year later was detailed to the White House as Deputy to Special Assistant for Mental Retardation under President Johnson, working with Eunice and Sargent Shriver.

His next move was cross country to California, where he spent four years as Associate Professor at UCLA writing and teaching Public Health Law, and later as Research Associate in Health Policy Studies at the RAND Corporation. Throughout all this time he acted as a Consultant on Radiation Injury Litigation.

In 1970 he entered private law practice in Texas, and was subsequently sent to Washington to lobby oil and gas issues. He later formed a law firm with Kip O’Neill, son of House Speaker Tip O’Neill, and wrote and played a pivotal role in the passage of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, which he considered his crowning achievement.

Turning his attention to fundraising, he served as Finance Chairman of the Political Action Committee for the Republican Presidential Dinner, 1981, the first such dinner to raise one million dollars. He continued to serve as Financial Chairman for other PACs, including the Reagan-Bush Re-Election Committee, 1984.

After 20 years in DC, he retired to Santa Fe, NM, where he married Ann Yerrick Montouri and together they opened an antique silver gallery.

He was a member of the American Bar Association (Chairman, Special Committee on Atomic Energy Law, 1972,) US Supreme Court Bar, State Bars of Texas, California and DC. Also Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha (honorary medical society,) and Order of the Coif.

He is survived by his wife, Ann, of Miami Beach, daughter Elizabeth Goldberg (Eric,) son Edward, Jr. (Jennifer Craig,) both of Bethesda, MD (from a previous marriage to Judith McKelvey), stepdaughters Anne Kendall Montouri of Palm Beach, and Elisabeth Montouri of Miami, granddaughter Juliet Goldberg and grandson Jerome Forgotson.

A memorial service will be announced.