Years of service 1936 – 1957 | Name Chester Jr. | |
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Born February 17, 1915Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S. ( 1915-02-17 ) Buried at Pleasant Hill CemeteryWellfleet, Massachusetts, U.S. Allegiance United States of America Commands held USS Sturgeon (SS-187)USS Haddo (SS-255) Spouse Joan Leona Labern (m. 1938) Children Frances Mary Nimitz, Sarah Catherine Nimitz, Elizabeth Joan Nimitz Parents Catherine Vance Freeman, Chester W. Nimitz Siblings Mary Aquinas, Anna Elizabeth Nimitz, Catherine Vance Nimitz Grandparents Chester Bernhard Nimitz, Anna Josephine | ||
Chester William "Chet" Nimitz Jr. (February 17, 1915 – January 2, 2002) was an American submarine commander in the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War, and businessman. He was awarded the Silver Star three times, for valor in battle. He was the son of U.S. Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
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Early life
Nimitz was born to Chester William Nimitz Sr. and Catherine Vance (née Freeman) Nimitz at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, while the couple, with their daughter Catherine Vance "Kate" (born the year before), lived at 415 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, and Nimitz Sr. was working on the USS Maumee at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Nimitz attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, graduating with the class of 1936.
Nimitz married Joan Leona Labern at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 18 June 1938. She was born in León, Nicaragua in 1912 to British parents, William Oscar Stonewall and Frances Mary (née Wells) Labern. With her parents she returned to England at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and was raised in England. Joan came to the United States in 1938 to study dentistry at the University of California Dental School in San Francisco, and met Chester at a cocktail party at Mare Island. She would make news in 1944 when she failed her test to become a United States citizen; two days later she did become an American citizen.
The couple would have three daughters, Frances Mary, Elizabeth Joan, and Sarah Catherine.
Commands
Later life
Chester Nimitz Jr. retired from the Navy as Rear Admiral in 1957. He joined Texas Instruments, and spent four years there. He later joined Perkin-Elmer Corporation, a manufacturer of scientific instruments based in Norwalk, Connecticut. He became president, chief-executive-officer (CEO) and a director in 1965, and was elected Chairman of the Board in 1969, serving until retirement in 1980.
He was an Honorary Trustee and Honorary Member of the Corporation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Death
The health of Chester and his wife, Joan, had deteriorated in their later years. Joan was blind, and Chester had lost 30 pounds due to a prolonged stomach disorder. He was also suffering from congestive heart failure. On January 2, 2002, Chester Nimitz Jr. committed suicide with his wife Joan by ingesting a quantity of sleeping pills in their home at a retirement residence in Needham, Massachusetts. He left a note stating:
Our decision was made over a considerable period of time and was not carried out in acute desperation. Nor is it the expression of a mental illness. We have consciously, rationally, deliberately and of our own free will taken measures to end our lives today because of the physical limitations on our quality of life placed upon us by age, failing vision, osteoporosis, back and painful orthopedic problems.
Chester and Joan are buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.