Edward Chester was a junior at Argentine High School in Kansas City, Kansas, in September 1940 when he quit to join the Naval Reserve.
He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Chester was born in Kansas on Dec. 16, 1922 to Konstanty Czyzyk and Sophia Sering Czyzyk, both Polish immigrants. His father was a brakeman for a steam railroad and his mother a homemaker. The family changed its last name to Chester between the 1930 and 1940 Census. His father also changed his first name to Kenneth. The parents divorced and his mother remarried, becoming Sophia Odrowski.
Sources: The Wyandotte County Record of Kansas City, Kansas; The Kansas City Times of Kansas City, Missouri; Census; Navy muster roll; Missouri Naturalization Index. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.