Chester Harding was Governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1917 to 1921. After graduating from the University of Alabama and later the United Stated Military Academy at West Pont in 1889, Chester Harding was commissioned in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He was appointed Division Engineer of Gatun Locks Division in 1907 and then served a term, from 1913-1914 as one of the commissioners in charge of the District of Columbia. He then returned to the Panama Canal as the maintenance engineer in 1915.