Born in Cameron, Missouri to Julius B. and Jessie M. Corn Kester, Kester attended Cameron High School, and obtained his Bachelor in economics in 1902 at Missouri Wesleyan College. He continued his studies at Columbia University, where he obtained his Master of Arts in 1912 and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1919.
He is known as a prolific author in the field of accounting. About a decade later he obtained another Bachelor from the University of Denver, in 1911. In between, in 1914, he obtained his Certified Public Accountants license for the State of Colorado.
Kester had started his academic career at the Missouri Wesleyan College in 1902, and from 1907 he was also lecturer at East Denver High School and subsequently at the University of Denver.
He served until his retirement in 1948. Among his Doctor of Philosophy students was Henry Whitcomb Sweeney (1898-1967).
From 1911 on, Kester also was working as a practising public accountant, and had joined the New York accountancy firm Boyce, Hughes and Farrell in 1917. Kester was elected vice president of the American Accounting Association from 1922 to 1925, and served as its president during 1925.
From 1925 to 1928 he served at the National Academy of Arbitrators as director of research in cost and management accounting, as successor of Professor Gould Harris of New New York
In 1941 Kester was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Baker University. He was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1957. 2. Number. 28.
