1893-1987
Chet Wing was the driving force in the California Wool Growers Association for forty-five years. The Association was organized in 1890, but it remained for Chet to start with a typewriter in 1922 and build it into a leading livestock association with a building in downtown San Francisco, a livestock supply company, and the California Livestock News.
He was born in San Francisco, attended Stanford and worked at a variety of jobs before World War I, when he enlisted and served in the Veterinary Corps in France. He was responsible for a shipment of mules to France. Following the war, he enrolled at the University Farm at Davis, where he played an active role. He was student body president and the first president of the Golden Hoof Club, the Animal Husbandry departmental club established in 1920. He was in charge of the first competitive livestock judging contest at Davis, on Picnic Day, April 24, 1920. He is credited with the "stunt" to publicize Picnic Day by leading a cow from Davis to Berkeley. The cow walked through Stockton and Livermore but was trucked most of the way.
Chet Wing was a man with incredible energy. He was a member of the Dolphin Club and swam in the Bay until he was eighty-seven. He would swim in the morning before arriving early at his office. He encouraged the establishment of regional associations where he would meet the sheepmen at spring and fall meetings. He had a remarkable ablilty to remember names and faces, and often entertained those present at such meetings by introducing every member in attendance. He was held in high regard by the members of the associations to whom he delegated responsibility and he stimulated their leadership and participation in the Wool Growers Association.
Chet maintained a strong association with the University of California among the faculty at Davis and Berkeley and with the county farm advisors who served as secretaries of the regional associations and as assistants at the California Ram Sale. The original sale was held on the Davis campus and eventually grew to become a major event selling over two thousand rams. The State convention, often held in San Francisco, was organized and produced by Chet. He often arranged for the wool growers to be hosted by the Commonwealth Club, of which he was a life member.