Chester Angleworm's Inspiring Stories Series Coming to an End

Chester Angleworm today

Chester Angleworm’s popular series of children’s books is finally coming to an end. The beloved author announced his retirement last week at the ripe old age of 98. Angleworm was born in 1918 in Billings, Montana. He attended Montana State University supporting himself as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen. Upon graduation he was immediately hired by the Flathead Lake News & Review as a reporter. Eventually Mr. Angleworm got his own column which delighted readers with stories both real and imagined about Northern Montana. However World War II intervened. Chester enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. Much to his dismay Chester served the entire war issuing supplies in Fort Dix. Mr. Angleworm has explained that his total ineptitude with a rifle likely led to this assignment.

After the war Angleworm withdrew his savings and traveled throughout Europe and later South America. It was these experiences that Chester credits for expanding his world view and made him a champion of the underdog. In 1950 he married his childhood sweetheart, Eunice Butterbut with whom he ultimately had six children and later 20 grandchildren. Throughout the 1950s The Angleworms lived in Long Island. Chester worked dutifully as a shipping clerk but in his spare time he looked for inspiring stories of people who had defied the odds, persevered and succeeded. He also submitted short fiction and a fishing column to local newspapers and magazines and was hired in 1961 to be a full time columnist for the Buffalo News in Buffalo, New York. This job, which he held until retirement in 1998, afforded Chester with the time to further research and write his series of "Inspiring Stories of People Who Overcame Great Hardships." The first, "Tina the Morbidly Obese Acrobat" was published in December 1964 in the Buffalo News to wide acclaim. The story was picked up by the Saturday Evening Post which ran all subsequent stories in the Inspiring Stories series.

Twice Random House has published a set of the stories in book form and a third publication is due out next Spring. They are timeless classics beloved by children and adults alike of all tastes, political persuasions, backgrounds and religions. Now that he is retiring from the series, Chester hopes to devote more time to fishing, playing with his grandchildren and working on his bottle cap collection. Asked about his decision to retire from the series he said, "it's time for new blood, I'm hoping one of my children or grandchildren will take over the series. If not I'm sure someone else will."

Mr. Angleworm's stories have won praise around the world for the heart-warming and inspirational messages. They have been translated into 52 languages. The greatest pleasure for Chester has been, in his own words, "the opportunity to meet these extraordinary people and share their stories with the world. I'm so gratified that so many people were willing to talk to me and that so many others found inspiration from their successful struggles." Below are the titles of some of the most popular of Chester's stories.

Tina the morbidly obese acrobat
Clara the syphilitic nun
Liam the narcoleptic security guard
Clyde the illiterate English teacher
Wesley the lactose intolerant dairy farmer
Gordon the schizophrenic psychiatrist
Wayne the blind air traffic controller
Candace the claustrophobic elevator operator
Troy the incontinent tour guide
Edwina the catatonic kindergarten teacher
Logan the hemophiliac blood donor
Lonnie the misanthropic career counselor
Chase the impotent male escort
Stuart the clinically depressed motivational speaker
Sandra the deaf mute singing instructor
Osgood the triple amputee juggler
Lisa the passive aggressive marriage counselor
Greg the sociopathic youth minister
Tanya the obsessive compulsive yoga instructor
Glenda the hypochondriac pathologist
Ollie the paraplegic tap dancer
Rachel the humpbacked fashion model
Kota the anorexic sumo wrestler
Percival the xenophobic immigration lawyer
Donald the morally bankrupt president