Chet Rich

Chet was employed by the Astoria School District from 1958 until his retirement in 1988. He drove school buses, worked as a mechanic, and was later the transportation supervisor for the district. His last 17 years, Chet was always the driver for the varsity boys’ football and basketball teams. Even after he took over as the transportation supervisor, he always scheduled himself as the driver for all of those trips. The reason for this was he always volunteered both home and away to keep the varsity football game stats and the varsity boys basketball scorebook. He is believed to be the only volunteer to do this for both sports and he did it longer than anybody else in the annuals at AHS.

Chet drove the bus for various other sports and activities during his twenty years with the district. He will always be remembered as Chet “The Jet’ by the way he transported students and staff to and from school activities. He always believed that the best and safest way was the fastest way.

Chet attended Astoria High School, but prior to graduating, he joined the US Army 11th Airborne Division, 511th Regiment, serving in the South Pacific during World War II as a paratrooper. He was chosen for General Douglas MacArthur’s Honor Guard, to sign the Peace Treaty with Japan, and it was his division that helped rescue 2200 people from a prison camp in the Philippines.

Chet passed away June 27, 1995, at the age of 69. During his extended illness, Chet continued to keep the scorebook for the boys’ basketball team as long as he could, and went to his last of many state basketball tournaments as a spectator in 1994. According to his daughter Jan, “he loved driving the team bus and had a great relationship with Mike Goin, the Athletic Director and Boys’ Basketball Coach.” Chet was a true contributor to Astoria High School athletics.