Chester Biesen, 86, Lobbyist

A Tacoma newspaper published a cartoon in 1927 of some state legislators in Olympia. Among them was a smiling figure identified as ``the kid of the House'' - a young man with slicked-back hair, striped tie and knickers.

The ``kid'' was Chester Biesen. In the next 40 years he would become one of the capital's most enduring figures - at first one of its youngest lawmakers, then the longtime lobbyist and executive director of the Association of Washington Cities.

Mr. Biesen died Friday at age 86.

Despite his long tenure in the capital, Mr. Biesen also had a second career - in his 70s and 80s - at the Environmental Protection Agency, and he traveled repeatedly to India on Christian missionary work.

Mr. Biesen was born Feb. 18, 1904, in Portland. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1925 from the University of Puget Sound, taught school briefly, then won election to the House from Thurston County.

He served two terms, being first elected at age 22.

After the end of his second term, he went to the association, which then was just a few years old.

For three years he taught political science at the University of Washington.

Then as now, the association is a clearinghouse for information about the state's cities, a training source for local government officials and the lobbying force in Olympia for municipalities.

Mr. Biesen rose to the position of executive director in 1936 and held that job until 1972.

As a lobbyist, Mr. Biesen liked to say, he had no big bills. Only little bills.

When Mr. Biesen retired from the association, the Senate passed a resolution in his honor, and 17 senators spoke in support of the measure.

``Chester was a great salesman,'' said Bob Grieve, then a Democratic senator from Seattle. ``He always said, `Well now, you do not vote for firemen's pension . . . Now how about these (bills)? And he never went away without a sale. . . . If he couldn't sell me on one thing he sold me something else.''

During World War II, Mr. Biesen served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, and at the close of the war he worked for the United Nations. He was a relief and rehabilitation administrator in Germany.

Mr. Biesen is survived by his wife, Vivianna Wubbens Biesen, whom he married Nov. 22, 1951.

He went to work in 1978 for the EPA as a member of the Senior Environmental Corps. He assisted the director of the noise control program in the Northwest region, and wrote a book on noise control called ``Decibels Made Easy.'' He retired again in 1986.

In his later years, Mr. Biesen became active in missionary work for his church, especially in India. With his own money, he helped build village churches and establish a Bible school in India. At University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Mr. Biesen served as an elder and as a deacon. He arose each morning and spent an hour in prayer and in reading the Bible, his wife said.

Vivianna Biesen, 71, said that when she married Mr. Biesen he seemed like ``such a square'' but she quickly changed her mind about that. ``We made quite a team,'' she said, noting that they criss-crossed the globe, even smuggling Bibles into the Soviet Union and China when they weren't allowed there.

``He was born service oriented. He didn't pay as much attention to me as he did to need. He was oriented to need. He was an 18-hour-a-day man.''

A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at University Presbyterian Church, 4540 15th Ave. N.E.

Memorials may be made to the Christ for India program at University Presbyterian.