Portrait of Gene Kesterson
Born March 11, 1921 in Nelsonville, OH
Rank: Seaman 1st Class. Service: US Coast Guard. Division/Ship: USS Tampa. Theater: North Atlantic/North Pole Convoy Patrols. Dates of Service: 1942 - 1945.

By the time Harold "Gene" Kesterson had joined the US Coast Guard at the age of 21 in 1942, he had already had a lifetime of experiences. He grew up as a farmboy in Nelsonvile, Ohio. As a teenager he spent two years mining coal, at one point he and other miners got trapped in a cave-in. At the height of the depression, Kesterson joined up with the Civilian Conservation Corps (part of Roosevelt's New Deal Works Progress Administration) and worked in Utah as a tree topper and with explosives - because of his mining experience. After his time with the CCC, he found work on a peacock ranch. In 1942 Kesterson joined the US Coast Guard assigned to the USS Tampa performing convoy duty between Greenland, Iceland, and Nova Scotia. At some point in 1944, Kesterson visited Gloucester and met Mary Blair on Good Harbor Beach. Six weeks later they were married, a marriage that would last 71 years. Upon his discharge, Gene and Mary moved back to Ohio where he had a job as a railroad mechanic. Mary was miserable - so they moved immediately back to Gloucester and a house on Hammond Street has been home ever since. Gene worked at LePages for 25 years before joining the DPW as a carpenter. They had three children, eight grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren (at the time).