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Tuesday, February 8, 2022
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Betty York posted a condolence
Monday, August 25, 2014
Chester Mark York was born in McCaskill, Hempstead Co., Arkansas on 5-6-1947 and died 8-16-2014 in Phoenix, Maricopa Co., AZ. His death resulted from complications of esophageal cancer for which he had received a diagnosis only one year earlier. Chester had only one child a son named David James York who was born in Sydney, Australia 2-17-1971 to Chester and Victoria Gotley. Both David and his mother still reside in Australia.
The parents of Chester York were Lester John York and Mary Evelyn Gorham both of McCaskill, Redland township, Hempstead Co., Arkansas, who had been married in Nevada County, Arkansas in 1931. He was born into a family with 4 living brothers at the time, Harold Alvin, David D., Charles Dudley and James Lester as well as 2 deceased siblings (an unnamed stillborn sister and Michael John York who died at age 1 ½.) At only 4 months old Chester was a passenger in the cab of his father's logging truck that collided with a Missouri-Pacific passenger train. He survived the accident that killed his 2 brothers, David and James, near Prescott, Arkansas. In 1950 Jerry Ross York was born into the family and by 1951 the York family had moved west to Phoenix. In 1953 the last sibling and only girl was born into the family, Betty Ann York.
Chester was a member of Boy Scouts of America from 1955-1957 in Phoenix. In 1958 his father Lester died of a sudden heart attack. Chester attended Murphy School #1 in District #1 through the 8th grade playing basketball and graduated in 6/1961. He wrestled at Carl Hayden High School for a time before he was relocated to Porterville, Tulare Co., California. There he lettered in Wrestling and graduated from Porterville Union High School in 6/1965.
By 11/1965 he joined the U.S. Army and went to the Army Airbourne division receiving his wings from Jump School in Ft. Benning, GA. He served in Vietnam from 1966-1967 in the 1st Cavalry Division earning the Army's Commendation Medal as Specialist 4 E-4 and received the Meritorious Achievement award. He received a Letter of Commendation for participation in the construction of Litts Airfield as a member of the "Sky Beaver Battalion" and was part of the 8th Engineer Battalion. His specialty was as a Construction Machinist Operator. He completed his 3 years of service in Bamberg, Bayern, Germany, where he was stationed with A&D Companies, 82nd Engineer Battalion. There he completed the 7th U.S. Army's Non-Commissioned Officers Academy, and eventually received an Honorable Discharge from the military in 1968.
Chester York was a world traveler who visited other parts of Europe while stationed there in the Army. However, by 1971 he had traveled to many more exotic places: Morocco, Bali, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Japan, India and Australia. In his lifetime he traveled to Guam, the Mexican Riviera; he even hitch-hiked around the USA and visited countless states on his own throughout his life. His biggest passion was fishing, he equally enjoyed the outdoors where he had camped, hunted, surfed picked fruit, explored and enjoyed simply sleeping out under the stars in his own backyard. Chester was a voracious reader on subjects as varied as history, philosophy, plants, different religions, old Hollywood, geography, Louis Lamour westerns and enjoyed the movies. He was also skilled in construction, carpentry, as an auto mechanic and knew something about fixing most things in his own home. He enjoyed cooking, swimming in the ocean, tubing down the Salt River and going out on a variety of fishing boats.
His main career was construction but he also drove a mail truck between Phoenix and Payson and found other types of jobs. In his last years Chester found comfort in his faith; he fully participated in his local church and dedicated himself to helping others, some he took into his home and others he simply continued to support with food, money and charity. He was not materialistic, lived simply and was from the generation that did not waste much, re-using and repairing things instead of throwing them away to buy o
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