Jean Margaret Chesley

Jean Margaret Chesley, age 93, died January 27, 2010, at her home in Red Wing. She was born on Aug. 2, 1916, in Chicago, where she lived with her parents, Alexander P. and Lydia J. Anderson, before the family moved to Tower View Farm near Red Wing, MN, in 1917. She attended Burnside grade school, and graduated from Punahou High School, Honolulu, in 1933. Jean received a BA in Zoology from Carleton College in 1937. She married Frank Gunsaulus Chesley in 1938 and they moved to Boston for Frank's graduate work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They returned to Red Wing in 1945, where they raised their three children, and where Frank, Demetrius Jelatis and Gordon Lee founded Central Research Labs. In the 40s and 50s she was active in the Burnside School Lunch Program, 4-H, the League of Women Voters, and during 1958-9 she and Frank were host parents for an AFS exchange student from Japan, Ayako Mizuno.

Along with her own family, Jean loved her community and the many histories and peoples of Goodhue County. Central to her life work was hands-on involvement in local and state history. In 1966, she became President of the Goodhue County Historical Society and helped establish the present museum on Oak St. in Red Wing. Over the next 28 years, she worked on many exhibits, the newsletter, the oral history project, and served as Museum Director for 10 years. In 1992, Jean and others led a major renovation of the museum. In 2007, she helped create the new archeaology exhibit on the prehistory of the Red Wing area. Jean was also engaged in many city and county historic preservation efforts, and in the development of the Cannon Valley Trail.

Between 1970 and 1992, Jean was deeply involved in the work of the Minnesota Historical Society as a member of the governing board, serving for 15 years as a Vice President. Always an advocate for county and local history, Jean was a member of the Society's Grants Review Committee, serving tirelessly from its first meeting in 1977 until 1992. Reflecting the breadth of her interests, Jean was a trustee of the Science Museum of Minnesota. Jean and her husband Frank established a lectureship series that brings scientists to Carleton College, their alma mater.

Jean received many awards and significant recognition during her life including the Award of Merit from the American Association for State and local history.

Jean Chesley was preceded in death by her husband Frank; her parents; her two brothers, Leonard and John; and two sisters, Louise and Elizabeth. She is survived by her three children, Gretchen Chesley Lang, St. Paul; Margaret Lydia Chesley, Bay City, WI; Paul A. Chesley, Honolulu, HI; her grandchildren Paul Cloak, Cornelia Lang and Ursula Lang; and her great-grandchildren Noah and Lydia Cloak and Amelia and Kahleb Lang-Fallon.

The family prefers that memorials be directed to Goodhue County Historical Society, Red Wing, or to The Chesley Fund for Local & County Historical Societies, MHS, 345 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul, MN 55102.
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Funeral service will be held at the Mahn Family Funeral Home at 11:00 am, Tuesday, February 2; visitation is from 10 - 11 a.m. Private burial will follow at Burnside Cemetery. A reception will be held in the afternoon at the Anderson Center, Tower View, 3-6 pm.