Chester Cornelius ‘Chet’ Jonason, 86, a longtime Harborite and 38 year employee at Grays Harbor Paper in Hoquiam, died Monday evening, March 11, 2013, at his home in Cosmopolis, Washington.
Chester was born on November 9, 1926, in Aberdeen, Washington, to Arthur Kristian and Sigrid Louise (Ross) Jonassen. He grew up in Aberdeen and joined the U.S. Army at the age of 17 in 1944. It was the Army that changed his last name from Jonassen to Jonason. Chester let it be. He served in the 1005th Engineers Spec. Construction Company in the Pacific and was working on a project for the Invasion of Japan. He was Honorably Discharged in 1946, and returned to Aberdeen where he went to work for Grays Harbor Paper in 1951. He retired in 1988 after 38 years with the company.