Richard N. Lester

Family-Placed Death Notice

RICHARD NORMAN LESTER A Metro Atlanta resident for 75 years, now of Blairsville and Cortez, FL, died of bone cancer on December 3, 2003 in Florida. Born to Nicholas Newman Lester and Martha Elizabeth McLarty Lester on the family farm in Paulding County on May 31, 1927, he graduated from Hiram High School and attended Clemson University under the Army Air Corps Cadet Program. He returned from military service and graduated from Georgia State University while working at the George Muse Clothing Company. He credits Dr. Sparks and Dr. Bill Suttles of GA State for their mentoring, leadership instruction and their guidance in helping him to obtain a scholarship, and to reach positions with the university newspaper, annual, and ultimately the presidency of the night school student body. He was a member of Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity and has remained active in GSU alumni affairs. A manufacturer's agent for industrial and hardware supplies since 1953, he co-founded Cobb & Lester Inc. in 1958 with J.T. Cobb and served as its President beginning in 1968 until his retirement in 1992. He pioneered the use of computers and warehousing owned inventory in the agency business. Cobb & Lester serves industrial supply houses in 10 Southeastern states. He credits J.T. Cobb with broad insight and a hope for a revitalized downtown Atlanta. He was pleased that the original Cobb & Lester property was used in the celebration of the 1996 Olympics. He enjoyed traveling in the United States and abroad with his wife, Kay following retirement. He often recalled with great pleasure the friends he made in his business travels as well as the wonderful friends encountered in Rotary. His wife and three sisters, Rose Bentley of Dayton, Ohio and Gwen Hindsman and Barbara Atcheson of Atlanta, nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews survive him. His parents and his brother, George Edwin Lester, predeceased him. He was a member of the Midtown Atlanta Rotary Club, the Cherokee Town & Country Club and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta, where he was an usher, former choir member and served on the Property and Restoration Committees to save the historic church, especially the pews. A celebration of his life will be conducted at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 435 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30308 on Saturday, December 13, 2003 at 11:00 A.M. Visitation at Spring Hill on Friday evening, December 12, 2003 from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. Private interment. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Luke's Tapestry of Grace for the restoration of the historic church or the Georgia State University Foundation, 33 Gilmer Street, S.E., Atlanta, GA 30303-3080. Arrangements made by H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill, 1020 Spring St., N.W., Atlanta, GA 30309, 404-876-1022.