Colby Mitchell Chester was born on July 23, 1877 at the U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, United States. He was the son of Colby M. Chester, then a lieutenant commander, who later served as commandant of the Naval Academy, and of Malancia Antoinette Tremaine.
He attended schools in Annapolis and in the District of Columbia, and the Mohegan Lake Academy at Peekskill, New York. From 1891 to 1894, Chester studied at St. John's College in Annapolis; then he entered Yale College, from which he received the Ph. B. in 1897 and the B. A. in 1898. Chester next enrolled at the New York Law School, which awarded him the LL. B. in 1900.
After being admitted to the New York bar, he worked briefly for the firm of Carter, Hughes, and Dwight, and then for a year with the firm of Rich, Woodford, Bovee, and Butcher. In 1902 he and two classmates established the firm of Ely, Billings, and Chester. Also in 1904 he left his law partnership to become treasurer of Manning, Maxwell, and Moore, an industrial supply firm located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, of which his father-in-law was a partner. Chester resumed his law practice in New York City in 1911, specializing in corporate law. In 1917, as a National Guard lieutenant, he was called to active duty and was commissioned a major in the infantry. After serving at Camp Meade, Camp MacArthur, Texas, and Camp Mills, he was assigned to the Inspector General Corps. He was discharged December 27, 1918. In 1919 Chester entered the food industry as assistant treasurer of the Postum Cereal Company of Battle Creek, Mich. During the next five years he served as treasurer, vice-president, and, in 1924, president. The Postum Company moved to New York City, and in 1929 merged with fifteen other food manufacturers to form the General Foods Corporation, of which Chester was the first president. In 1935, Chester became chairman of the board and from 1943 to 1946 he was chairman of the executive committee. Chester was also chairman of the boards of Manning, Maxwell, and Moore, the Zonite Products Corporation, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and director of the New Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois Railroad Company, of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, of Chase Manhattan Bank, and of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. Civic and philanthropic affairs were also among Chester's activities. He was chairman of the New York chapter of the American Red Cross and of the Red Cross War Fund of Greater New York (1943 - 1952); member of the Yale University Development Committee and of the St. John's College Advisory Board; and president of the National Institute of Social Sciences from 1942 to 1945. He was prominent in the affairs of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) during the mid-1930's, and became its president in 1936. During this period he made a number of speeches in which he advocated better employee and community relations for corporate management, in order to meet what he termed "public distrust and misunderstanding of big corporations. " Chester's management style was reflected in his description, in early 1939, of a business executive's responsibilities in the Great Depression: ". .. to fill the weekly pay envelope; to see that local, state, and national government is supplied with the wherewithal; to provide the consumer with goods honestly made and reasonably priced; to get out of the difference between the price and the cost a return to the investor that will induce him to entrust his money to us, for without his capital there could be no plant and no production. " Chester died in Greenwich, Connecticut.
During his presidency, which continued until 1935, General Foods acquired the Cheek-Neal Company, manufacturer of Maxwell House Coffee, the Certo Corporation, Frosted Foods, Inc. , the Dunlap Milling Company, the Bennett Day Importing Company, and the Franklin Baker Company. Sales increased from $25 million to $120 million.
Yale University Development Committee
On April 20, 1904, Chester married Jessie Campbell Moore; they had three children.
