#FlashbackFriday: The Link Between a Georgia Recreation Center and a 40-Year Exchange Associate

For Black History Month, Flashback Friday looks back on a story that might not be immediately familiar but has a connection to Exchange history.

In Columbus, Georgia, there is a building called the Frank Chester Recreation Center. The name honors a former city councilman who served for 20 years and was active in a number of organizations in the city.

Before he became a city official, Chester spent more than 40 years working for the Exchange, retiring in 1977 as retail manager at the Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) Exchange, where he began his career as a part-time salesclerk while still in high school.

He continued full time after graduation, and was promoted to a supervisor position during World War II. During the War, he was inducted into the Army, serving at Benning; Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania; and the Boston Port of Embarkation, where he was discharged in 1946 as a sergeant.

He returned to Fort Benning and resumed his Exchange career. In 1970, he was sent to Vietnam, where he operated the largest retail exchange in the world at the time. “That was in Saigon and we had 412 employees and did over $2 million a month,” he said in a March 1977 Exchange Post story that reported he had little difficulty working with Vietnamese associates. “Treat people right, with respect [and] courtesy, and they will respond and support you, whether they can speak your language or not.”

That March 1977 story was about Chester being named “Boss of the Year” by the Chattahoochee Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association. He talked about his plans to retire and about contemplating running for a seat on the Columbus City Council. He was already active in community service, serving on the Columbus Medical Center board of commissioners. He was 56 when he retired, but remained active in community affairs for more than two decades after leaving the Exchange. He died in 2005 at age 84 (read his obituary here).

Sources: Exchange Post archives, Columbus (Ga.) Parks and Recreation Department.