About the Project
The Backstory
The story about the search for a boy named Chester originated as a single Facebook post in June 2024, and then, improbably, turned into a series of social media posts that extended throughout the summer, culminating with a final installment on September 22, 2024, the 100th birthday of the author’s father, Ford S. Worthy, Jr. (at far left, at a party celebrating his 99th birthday in 2023; and as he would have appeared when he met Chester at the San Francisco airport in November 1945). In 2025, the author added four new chapters, along with a final section, Acknowledgements, which itself is an important part of the story.
To bring the story to a wider audience, the author worked with Nicole Pajor Moore, a Durham, N.C. designer who compiled the Facebook posts together with photos and other illustrations, to create a short book that is available in both paperback and e-book form. Marc Maximov, an independent producer based in Durham produced the audiobook version.
About the Author
Ford S. Worthy (with his father, enjoying an oyster on the half shell) was born in Charlotte, grew up in Raleigh and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. He worked as a researcher and writer for Fortune magazine in New York and later served as the magazine’s bureau chief in Chicago and Hong Kong. His article “The Coming Defaults in Junk Bonds” was selected as a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 1988. Following his time at Fortune, he earned a law degree from the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the University of Chicago Law Review. He worked as an attorney in Raleigh before joining Pappas Capital, a biotech venture capital firm in Durham. He has served as a partner, and now senior advisor, at Pappas Capital since 1997, and is a senior advisor and board member for North Carolina Longform Magazine, publisher of The Assembly. He and his wife Allison live in Chapel Hill.
Contact
You may contact the author at contact@insearchofchester.com. To submit comments, critiques, suggestions and questions, please go to Engage.