Chester Leo Smith, Jr. (1922 – 2001) was a poet, playwright, author, attorney, U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot, but most of all the patriarch of his family, each member of whom is deeply indebted for his presence in their life.
Wife Ann Lonergan Smith; children Blithe, Garth, Tara, Quinn, Michael, Shannon and Daryle Ann; grandchildren Tess Ann, Griffin, Eli, Noah; cousin Jimmye Lou Harris.
Excerpts from Chester’s favorite poem, Kubla Khan:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree;
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man
Down through a sunless sea . . .
. . . Five mile meandering with mazy motion through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man, and sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on,
Nor all your piety and wit can change a line of it
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.
Omar Kyham
Born January 23, 1922, Kansas City, Missouri
University of Chicago, Bachelor of Arts, History Department 1941
Harvard University Juris Doctorate 1948
Illinois State Bar Membership, 1948
California State Bar Membership, 1952
Captain, U.S. Marine Corp, 1941-45
Fighter Pilot, Hellcat F6F off Carrier “Block Island”, 1944-1945
Literary works:
You’ll Find Out, Collier’s, 1948; Saturday Evening Post, 1949; The Only Way Out, American Legion Magazine, 1951; Erika, Mon Amour, 1954; My Empress Riva, 1955; You’ll Find Out, Star Weekly Magazine 1958; Battle of Midway, 1966; Cross Examination at Auschwitz, 1966; Proposed Amendment re Nuclear Weapons, Beverly Hills Bar Association Journal, 1970; The International Lawyer, 1971; Thieve’s Lion, 1973; The Night of the Covenant, 1974; White Masai, 1975; The Trial of Hai Rei, 1980; The Last Execution, 1981; Untitled (Grey City Journal, Chicago Magazine), 1986; Harry, by Tom 1999; Kamikaze Dawn, 2000