Ensign Chester W. Olcott US Navy

Ensign Chester W. Olcott (NSN: 0-101201), United States Navy, was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Wake Island on 23 December 1941, and was held as a Prisoner of War until returned to U.S. Military control at the end of the war.

News-Times, Newport, OR February 19, 2003

Chester Olcott

Chester W. Olcott, 88, of Newport died Feb. 15, 2003. (Lincoln Co.)

He was born April 11, 1914 in Salem to Lena (Hutton) and Ben W. Olcott, Oregon's governor from 1919 to 1923.

The Olcotts moved to Portland in the early 1920s, where he attended Chapman Grammar School and Lincoln High School.

After graduating in 1932, he attended Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He also played for the football team in the 1936 Rose Bowl.

After graduating from Stanford, he enrolled in U.S. Naval officer's training, and was sent to Wake Island as a Naval Ensign on a communications mission in 1941. He participated in the defense of Wake Island and was captured on Dec. 23, 1941. He spent the next four years in a Prisoner Of War camp in Japan.

He married Helen McHugh in 1948 in Seattle, Wash.

They moved to Newport, where he worked for the Central Lincoln People's Utilities District until his retirement in 1976.

He was a member of the Elks and a lifetime member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

He was an outdoorsman, and enjoyed hunting, fishing, and camping throughout Oregon, Alaska, and Wyoming. He enjoyed spending time on the beach and in the mountains. He was a sports fan, and enjoyed University of Oregon and Stanford University football and track.

Survivors include two brothers, Richard of Portland and Gordon of Salem; and nieces and nephews Eric, Robert, and Joanne. He was preceded in death by his wife, Helen, in December 2002.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at City View Cemetery in Salem. Interment will be held at Mt. Crest Abbey Mausoleum.