Veterans column: Denison's Klein dies helping British in Burma during WWII

Many students and graduates of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, have served in the armed forces since the school’s beginnings. One of these was Chester L. Klein Sr. who graduated in 1920.

Born in Sandusky, Ohio on Feb.16, 1893, Klein was attending school at Denison when at the age of 25, he enlisted for World War I on May 24, 1918, and served with an artillery battery in Europe. He was discharged on Jan. 25, 1919, and returned to Denison, where he graduated in 1920 with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. Klein planned on becoming a missionary. Next to his photo in the yearbook, the following was written. “Klein is a seven-year man at Denison, that is he spent four years in Doane and then only three in Granville College. In football, studies, and fussing he has made a name for himself, and we know he will keep right on plugging when he is converting the heathen across the ocean in China or some other country.”

In 1921, he was appointed by the Baptist church to serve in Burma. While on the ship traveling overseas, he met an American nurse, Alice Glazier, who was also on her way to minister in Burma. When they arrived, they were married in Rangoon and began their ministry together. In 1922, they had their first child, a daughter. In the coming years, the family would grow with the addition of two sons and another daughter. They returned to the states in 1925, and Klein began his graduate studies at the University of Chicago for two years. They then returned to Burma until 1935, when they were furloughed and Klein received his Bachelor of Divinity Degree from the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School in California. In 1936, they returned to Burma and were stationed at a village on the Burma Road named Taungoo.

In January 1942, the Japanese invaded the British colony of Burma. Their goal was to seize the Burma Road and cut off the last remaining land supply route to China. At the time the two oldest Klein children were attending Denison University. The rest of the family could have left Burma immediately but they didn’t. Klein’s wife Alice, stayed a few months ministering to the locals and British troops during the Burma retreat but left the country in May with her children. They arrived in the United States in July. The Rev. Klein, who knew the people and the terrain well, stayed behind and offered his services to the British Army. He was given a commission as a captain in the British Army.

In August, Alice received the news that her husband had died in a British Hospital in Dibrugarh, India on July 26, 1942. According to a letter sent to the Secretary of State regarding the death of an American citizen abroad, “Death was due to a typhoid-like fever superimposed on a condition of great physical exhaustion and mental strain, resulting from the hardships experienced during the hostilities in Burma and more especially, during the long march on foot from Burma to India.”

The 49-year-old was originally interred at a cemetery in India, however, after the war, his remains were reinterred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Denison graduate, who refused to let his flock suffer alone at the hands of the Japanese, was finally home.

Doug Stout is the Veterans Project Coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org. His book "Never Forgotten: The Stories of Licking County Veterans" is available for purchase at the library or online at bookbaby.com & Amazon.com.

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Vet column: Denison's Klein dies helping British in Burma during WWII