Necrology

John Wheeler Lester '32

Apr. 1, 1911-Sep. 6, 2003

John Wheeler Lester ’32, a retired attorney and former town councilman, was born on April 1, 1911, in the village of Blasdell, town of Hamburg, near Buffalo, NY. His parents were Garra K. Lester, a physician, and the former Jessie I. Holmes, a teacher. John Lester came to Hamilton in 1928 as a graduate of Hamburg High School, where he had been president of his class. He joined Delta Kappa Epsilon and played varsity hockey. After two years on the Hill, he transferred to the University of Buffalo to pursue studies in business administration.

After earning his B.S. degree in 1932, John Lester found employment with the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York. While serving as a compliance officer for Equitable Life, he attended night classes at Fordham University Law School and obtained his LL.B. degree in 1940. Three years later, after a stint as an enforcement attorney for the Office of Price Administration during the early years of World War II, he entered the U.S. Army as a private. Commissioned as an officer in the Medical Administrative Corps, he remained in uniform for three years until 1946, and left the Army as a first lieutenant.

After the war, John Lester returned to the Buffalo area, where he established his general law practice. He became a partner in the law firm of Schutrum, Howder & Lester in Buffalo, before striking out on his own as a solo practitioner in his hometown of Hamburg. There he served on the town council from 1955 to 1967 and also as acting village police justice and attorney for the school board. As a lawyer, he was known for the close attention he paid to his clients, willingly taking their phone calls at odd hours of the day and night, and even making house calls. He continued to practice as a self-described “country lawyer” until his retirement in 1997, at the age of 86.

John Lester, a former deacon and president of the board of trustees of the Hamburg Presbyterian Church, enjoyed spending summers at the family’s camp on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. He and his wife, the former Lou A. Leonard, who had been wed on June 14, 1941, in Poland, OH, found winter enjoyment in Florida.

John W. Lester died on September 6, 2003, while hospitalized in Buffalo, at age 92. Besides his wife of 62 years, he is survived by two daughters, Mary Ann Cadwallader and Lucy Jane Kelly K’72; a son Richard L. Lester; and seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

 

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