Remembering William Livingston Kester 1873-1954 Born in West Virginia on Nov. 1, 1873, William Livingston Kester was a man of vision, a man of means and a man with a mission. After a flood wiped out the family business, they moved to Pittsburgh where he grew up. After high school, Kester went to work for the Westinghouse Electric Co., even without any higher education he rose through the ranks at Westinghouse to fill key positions in San Francisco and in Mexico. His next stop, France, was to become manager of Westinghouse Cooper-Hewett Lamp Co. which produced the mercury vapor lamp. While there he became acquainted with Georges Claude who invented the neon light. It was Kester who was instrumental in bringing it to this country but he realized little money from it. After 20 years in France he returned to the United States as WWI broke out. He became a stockbroker in New York and for health reasons retired in 1919. Moving to Miami then on to Ft. Lauderdale and he finally moved to Pompano because he loved to fish and the waters off Pompano were abundant with game fish. He became acquainted with M.A. Hortt, a real estate broker of Pompano and it was Hortt who influenced his entry into land during the land boom rush of the 20s. Kester built a home in Pompano in 1925 and began buying choice pieces of land. The 1926 and 1928 hurricanes destroyed much of his building investments and he lost a large sum of money in the failure of the Pompano race track which he and other investors had financed. Even after all this he was able to donate money and tracks of land to individuals and organizations. It was also said he never conducted any business before noon. Among his more well known donations was land for a park on NE 6th Street Pompano, now known as "Kester Park". Land for the present site of the Pompano Beach (now Broward County) library on Atlantic Blvd. and NE 13th Ave. The land for the Garden Club, and an Episcopal Church, land for the Pompano Beach Cemetery, and the athletic field. He donated land in other areas for city use, also land for the Baptist church in Deerfield Beach. The most important donation of land to Pompano Beach was the beach front property running from Atlantic Blvd. (where the "Casino" was located) to north of where the Pompano Beach pier is located. The one binding stipulation to this land gift was the sea grape trees, they could never be removed. That is probably the only reason they remain today. Thanks to Kester's far sightedness, these donations, among others gave him a reputation for generosity in the community. Kester was elected to the town commission in 1927 and served for 2 years pushing for tourism and growth. After he left city politics, he continued to be influential in the decisions governing Pompano. He owned productive land, raised cattle, vegetables and citrus groves. In 1929 the land bust closed the local bank leaving the community without banking facilities so Kester purchased property from the citizens that were going to lose their land and he was instrumental in reorganizing and opening the bank again with the name of Farmers bank of Pompano in 1934. Kester was not without his humorous side and if the right opportunity presents itself, I will someday relate the story that's told concerning the nine black cats that adorned the precipices of his Spanish style house on North Ocean Drive. In 1937 Kester began building "cottages" on the land he owned in Pompano and Deerfield. He built about 150 of them mostly on the beach on property he owned and they were called 'Kester's Ocean Colony' and were meant to be rented to tourists. It was said Kester was the largest holder of property East of the Intracoastal Waterway in North Broward County. This construction gave much needed work to the residents of Pompano and the surrounding areas. It also provided much needed housing to an area that had very few rental units in the past. The cottages were a huge success, especially the ones built along "Ocean Blvd." (Atlantic Blvd.) and along NE 1st Street in Pompano, giving the local people an opportunity to live in nice affordable housing. There are at least six of these "cottages" left and still occupied in Pompano Beach, not counting the two maintained as Museums by the Pompano Beach Historical Society in Founders park at 217 NE 4th Ave. Kester built a bar that stood where the Howard Johnsons is now located at the intersection of Atlantic Blvd. and Ocean drive. He also leased the casino that was owned by Pompano for a restaurant on the beach for dining, parties and social events. The name, "Kester" today is synonymous with what is good about Pompano Beach and his influence is seen in every part of Pompano, Deerfield, and parts of Delray Beach. Without his vision and unselfishness, Pompano and other areas would probably not have arrived in this point of time with the same outlook to the future that Kester had. W. L. Kester died in 1954 at the age of 81 and is buried in the Pompano Beach Cemetery on land he donated many years earlier. He was truly "A man of vision."