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John Kerry, a Lifetime of Wasted Opportunities Written by Michael Ashbury Tuesday, October 19, 2004 Unlike the average American, John Forbes Kerry was born into a family of wealth and privilege. His mother, Rosemary Forbes, was a French national, and heiress to the Forbes family fortune. Her father James Grant Forbes was born in Shanghai, China. Family members, including her father were leading opium dealers in China during the Opium War accumulating a considerable fortune. With support of the Forbes wealth, John Kerry had the opportunity of the finest education being trained at boarding schools in Switzerland and Massachusetts, including...

<p>WINCHENDON, Mass. -- When Phillips Exeter Academy faces the top basketball teams in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference, coach Malcolm Wesselink jokes that his biggest problem is getting his players not to ask star opponents for autographs.</p> <p>Hoop stars among the preppies? Don't snicker. The NEPSAC league includes the likes of Martin Iti, a 6-foot-10 junior at the Winchendon School here who has already been scouted by the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. Giedrius Rinkevicius, a 7-foot-2 center, came to Maine to attend Bridgton Academy from basketball-mad Lithuania -- and next year will have a basketball scholarship at the University of Missouri, one of the best college teams in the country.</p>