Chester Charles THOMPSON, Congress, IL (1893-1971)

1893-1971

THOMPSON, Chester Charles, a Representative from Illinois; born in Rock Island, Ill., September 19, 1893; attended the grade and high schools; engaged in the plastering contracting business 1910-1932; during the First World War served as a corporal in Headquarters Company of the Twenty-fifth Coast Artillery in 1918 and 1919; treasurer of Rock Island County, Ill., 1922-1926; mayor of Rock Island 1927-1933; member of the Democratic State central committee 1930-1932; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third, Seventy-fourth, and Seventy-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1933-January 3, 1939); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1938 to the Seventy-sixth Congress; appointed on November 15, 1939, as president and chairman of the board of the Inland Waterways Corporation, and served until his resignation August 15, 1944; president of the American Waterways Operators, Inc., from August 1944 until his retirement in 1957; member and chairman, Jury Commission of Rock Island County since 1961; member and committee chairman, Board of Supervisors, Rock Island County, from 1965 until his death in Rock Island, Ill., January 30, 1971; interment in Chippiannock Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present