from the USTA Communications Department

Columbus, OH — John J. “Jack” Chester, 91, former USTA legal counsel, who also served three terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, counseled city council members, state lawmakers and a president, and represented the famous and powerful in tight situations in court, died July 24, 2011, at his Upper Arlington home.

USTA photo

Jack Chester

Chief among those he counseled was William B. Saxbe, former U.S. ambassador to India, former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator. The two met while serving in the Ohio House. When Saxbe was named President Richard M. Nixon’s fourth attorney general in 1974, Mr. Chester went with him to Washington and became a special counsel to the president, a post he held for eight months.

Mr. Chester graduated from Bexley High School in 1938 and from Amherst in 1942. That year, he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve, serving as executive officer and chief engineer on destroyers during World War II. He returned to inactive duty in 1946, entered Yale Law School and graduated in 1948. That year, he entered private practice with his father, John J. Chester, Jr., who had been police prosecutor for the city of Columbus and Franklin County prosecuting attorney. Mr. Chester was elected to his first term in the Ohio House in 1952.

Besides the law and politics, Mr. Chester was interested in medicine and served on several local hospital boards, including Riverside Methodist and Doctors.

Mr. Chester is survived by his children, John, James, Joel and Cecily Chester Alexander; and 11 grandchildren.