Pioneer school trustee Sewell dies

Chester "Chet" T. Sewell, an original Clark County School District trustee who helped alleviate overcrowding in schools amid the Las Vegas Valley population boom of the early 1960s, has died. He was 94.

Sewell died Saturday in Henderson from complications of abdominal surgery which he underwent two weeks ago.

Services for the Henderson resident of 56 years will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave. Graveside services will follow in Palm Valley View Memorial Park.

In 1966, the year he retired from the school district, Valley View Elementary School, one of the oldest academic facilities in Henderson, was renamed C.T. Sewell Elementary in his honor. The school celebrates its 40th anniversary this fall.

Sewell was a member of the old Henderson School District from 1952-56 and joined the school district when consolidation occurred in 1956. He served as board president from 1960-66.

Following a late-night, closed-door session of the school board in May 1966, Sewell, who a year earlier was selected by fellow trustees to serve a third term as president, suddenly resigned.

News media accounts of the time said the reason was "urgent personal obligations." In reality, Sewell was suffering from life-threatening ulcers.

Few would disagree that a contributing factor to such an ailment was that in the early to mid-1960s enrollment in local public schools skyrocketed from 27,000 to 57,000.

Faced with a shortage of schools, a financial crunch and growing disciplinary problems in the high schools, Sewell and other board members were under great pressure to come up with solutions that included double sessions for many students.

Sewell helped push for a building program that allowed the school system to return to single sessions by 1966.

Born Jan. 23, 1904, in Grandfalls, Texas, Sewell was the youngest of eight children. He outlived all of his siblings.

Sewell grew up in Southern California and came to Henderson in 1942. He got a job in a magnesium plant during World War II.

Over the years, Sewell worked for several BMI plant companies, including Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp., and American Potash and Chemical Corp., where he was maintenance coordinator in the mid-1960s. He retired from that field in 1969.

In 1952, Sewell was appointed to the Henderson School Board and won his first election to the post two years later. In 1956, he was appointed as Henderson's representative to the new CCSD and was immediately named vice president. Sewell was re-elected in 1960 and was named president by his peers.

In 1964, Sewell won the Outstanding Citizen Award, then sponsored by the Nevada Savings and Loan Association, for helping the community overcome explosive school population problems. He received the honor during an Independence Day broadcast on KLAS-TV Channel 8.

Two years later, Sewell, then 62, left the public spotlight, never to return again.

"I can truthfully say that my work as a board member and the associations that I have had with my fellow board members, administrators and all of those involved in education has been the most rewarding experience in my life," Sewell said in his letter of resignation to the school district.

But Sewell overcame health problems and for many years devoted much of his time to assisting with the activities at the school that carried his name.

Sewell was a charter member of the Henderson Lions Club and a member of Mount Moriah Masonic Lodge in Henderson and the Henderson Rotary Club.

Sewell is survived by a daughter, Andrea Sewell of Mill Valley, Calif., and 11 nieces and nephews. Sewell's wife, Alice Trapp Sewell, preceded him in death four years ago.

DONATIONS: In Sewell's memory to the C.T. Sewell Elementary School Counseling Service, 700 E. Lake Mead Drive, Henderson, NV 89015.

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