Celebrated Lodi ping pong champ dies at 91

Friends and family remember longtime Lodi resident and successful ping pong Olympian Byng Forsberg as a good friend, a great brother and a devoted husband and father. Forsberg passed away June 12, at the age 91.

“He was very friendly, very outgoing and he had a good sense of humor,” Forsberg’s younger brother Kevin Forsberg said. “He was helpful to people, and he lacked prejudices that are common in some circles. He was accepting of all people.”

Forsberg had been living in Lodi since 1960 and was the owner of the Forsberg and Associates Pest Control business.

Marty Weybret, the former owner of the News-Sentinel, recalled how he first met Forsberg when he came out to inspect his home for pests.

“He was very careful about inspecting our house,” Weybret said. “He was well in his 60s and crawled all over the house in the dustiest, nastiest places, but his report was complete, and it was understandable. It was well presented. It was done on time. He met his prices. He was just a guy who took pride in what he did. Whether it was work or in sports, he was a perfectionist.”

Forsberg is in the Lodi Hall of Fame for his success as a Senior Olympian in ping pong, and ranked number one in the nation in ping pong nearly continuously from age 65 to 85. According to his son Dennis, Forsberg played all over the country and internationally.

“To do it so well at his age was remarkable,” Weybret said. “He’d walked in the newsroom constantly telling us about his latest trophy, latest championship. He loved to play, and he was very proud of his accomplishments.”

According to his older brother Robin, after injuring his hand in a car accident, Forsberg learned to play ping pong with his left hand while in the hospital and won several hospital tournaments.

Once he left the hospital, Forsberg began participating in the seniors games, bringing home several metals and trophies.

“He loved doing it because he was good at it and he tried to teach people how to play at the University of Pacific. He got a lot people interested in it,” Robin said.

Forsberg started a ping pong club at the University of the Pacific for South American students where he taught them the game and bought them equipment.

Kevin described his brother a family man who frequently hosted family gatherings with his wife during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“The entire Forsberg family would gather at his house on Scottsdale Road, nearly 40 of us, and it would be a two-day party ongoing with food and games,” Dennis recalled.

He also remembered the family trips they took to camp in Sacramento.

“We would do family skits, so he and Bobbie would put together costumes and backdrops to get on stage, and nobody had any talent at all, but we were gullible enough to get up there and try,” Dennis said. “We just had a lot of fun getting up there and making up our own plays in front of the campers. It was very memorable.”

Dennis reminisced over all of the special moments he spent with his father growing up.

“He used to take me to all the state, local and county fairs,” Dennis said. “He would take me tubing before it was fashionable. We were on innertubes, and we would float down rivers in the local area. He would make paddles out of wood. He would tie a rope around the middle of this big truck innertube, and we’d straddle the innertube and paddle down the river. Before there was kayaks and there was lots of sporting equipment, we just made up our own. It was kind of fun.”

Even though Dennis only lived with Forsberg in Lodi during the summer time, he made sure to always keep him busy.

“We used to ride motorcycles from his house over through the grape fields and over to the Micke Grove area,” he said. “That was a nice experience for me.”

According to Dennis, his father showed him the ropes of his pest control business and he would help him out with the business growing up. Dennis, who is now a contractor, got his start in his father’s business doing repair work.

Growing up, Kevin remembered his brother as practical joker with a great sense of humor. He was 9 years old when Forsberg left to join the Army during World War II. He served as a paratrooper.

Kevin remembered his brother’s generosity and how he traveled frequently to Venezuela to help them solve their issues during the migration of the killer bees.

“He was generous in giving advice and helping people, not asking for compensation, but just working to help them solve their problem,” Kevin said.

He will miss Forsberg’s sense of humor along with his joy and pleasure of life.

“He was a wonderful contributor to our society extending friendship to all,” Kevin said. “He will be missed.”

Byng and his eldest brother Robin were the best of friends. He will miss knowing that his brother is there and being able to talk to him.

“He was a good brother. We were very close. We did a lot of things together when we were younger,” Robin said

Growing up Robin remembered Forsberg as trader, and he recalled how his dad bought him a bicycle and Forsberg was able to trade it in for a racing bike.

He later took that trading mentality with him and ran an antique business with the his late wife Bobbie, Robin said.

“I remember he and my stepmom Bobbie for many years going to antique shows all over the state buying and selling,” Dennis recalled.

Robin described his brother as a very loving husband who was always taking his wife on romantic dates and or traveling around the world.