Chesley P. Seely
Personal
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: March 20, 1898
Date of Death: December 15, 1963
Birth Place: Mt. Pleasant, UT
Death Place: Santa Fe, NM
Ex-Utah Grazing Director, Chesley Seely, Dies at 65
Special to The Tribune
SANTA FE, N.M. – Chesley P. Seely, 65 former chief of range and forestry programs conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Utah, died Sunday at his home here.
A native of Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete County, Utah, Mr. Seely was appointed to the Grazing Service shortly after the Taylor Grazing Act was adopted by Congress in 1934. At the time of his death, he was state director for the BLM in New Mexico.
A veteran of World War I, Mr. Seely became one of the first grazing land administrators in Utah and in 1938 was named regional grazier for the eastern half of the state.
He was furloughed and joined the U.S. Army in World War II. He served overseas in Australia, New Guinea and the Philippines before being discharged as a lieutenant colonel. In 1945 he returned to Utah as regional grazier for the state.
Before being assigned in 1961 as BLM state director for New Mexico, he served as chief of range management for Oregon, Washington and Idaho with headquarters in Portland.
The family still maintains a home at 1005 -15th East in Salt Lake City, where a son, John H. Seely, presently resides.
He was born in Mt. Pleasant on March 20, 1898, a son of John Henry and Margaret Peel Seely.
He attended Utah State University and went into the ranching and livestock business after college.
Mr. Seely married Gladys Ericksen, Jan. 25, 1923, in Mt. Pleasant.
Survivors include his widow, Santa Fe.; two sons and a daughter, Maj. Kent Seely, Ft. Sill, Okla., John H. Seely, Salt Lake, and Mrs. David E. (Willa Rae) Reiser, Cambridge, Mass.
Mrs. Seely and members of the family will accompany the body to Salt Lake for funeral services Thursday at 1 p.m. at Bonneview Stake Chapel, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1535 Bonneview Dr. (1051 South).
Published in The Salt Lake Tribune, Wednesday December 18, 1963 page 31
[Grandson of SGS # 2337 – Chesley Peel; John Henry; Justus Wellington( # 2337); Justus Azel (# 836); Justus William; Joseph; John; Benjamin; Nathaniel, Robert]
