Grundy, Chester

Chester Grundy was born in 1947 in Louisville, KY. He is a 1969 graduate of the University of Kentucky (UK), where, as a student, he helped establish the school's Black Student Union. Grundy had been an administrator with UK for more than 30 years, serving as the director of the Office of African American Student Affairs  and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Cultural Center. He was the Director of Multicultural Student Programming. Over the years, Chester has been a mentor, counselor, role model, and friend, one who clearly recognizes factors outside the classroom that can impact a student's goal to graduate from the University of Kentucky. Chester Grundy also helped establish the nationally recognized UK "Spotlight Jazz Series" and arranged for a number of nationally and internationally renowned speakers to visit the University of Kentucky campus. In the Lexington community, Chester Grundy co-founded the annual Roots and Heritage Festival and the Martin Luther King annual celebration. For more see Chester Grundy on the HistoryMakers website; the Chester Grundy entry in the 1997 Leaders Awards, by the Lane Report; and many articles in local newspapers. Listen to the Chester Grundy sound recording interview in the Blacks in Lexington Oral History Project, 1900-1989 at Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries. There is also a sound recording of his interview online at the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project at the Kentucky Historical Society. See L. B. Blackford, "UK lays off Chester Grundy, long-time director of MLK Cultural Center," Lexington Herald-Leader, 06/11/2012 [no longer available online].