Chester Shell
(1892-1967)

Died aged c. 75

Chester Shell was born February 16, 1892 in Orange Springs, Florida. He worked as a porter for the Seaboard Railroad and a hunting and fishing guide. In 1926, he approached the Alachua County School Board seeking support of a school for the county’s African-American children. To raise the $10,000 required by the School Board, he visited men he had guided on hunting and fishing trips in Florida and raised much of the money through those contacts. The African-American community in Hawthorne solicited funds, sold dinners and made personal donations to raise extra money. The school was built, although it covered only kindergarten through the eighth grade. A high school for Hawthorne’s African-American students was built in 1955 and named Shell High School in his honor. Today it is known as Shell Elementary School. Chester Shell died May 9, 1967.

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