G. Chesnut, 89; linguist in spy work, translator of Bible texts

George Leoni Chesnut, a spy by day and a translator of biblical Greek by night, died April 20 of pneumonia at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va. He was 89.

A translator of more than 50 languages, both ancient and modern, he used his linguistic skills at the National Security Agency for more than 30 years as a civilian director of the analytic section.

After work, on weekends and in retirement, he translated children’s poetry from Chinese to Spanish and English, compiled Serbian and Afghan Pashto dictionaries, translated a French movie script into English, and translated biblical texts into Dinka, the language of southern Sudan. He considered his work with biblical Greek to be something of a divine calling, and conducted seminars on the ancient language for churches.

A polymath who believed in keeping his mind engaged, he calculated license plate prime numbers while in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles and allowed others to go ahead of him until the prime-number plate he desired came up.

He was also an accomplished pianist.

Although he never discussed his work at the NSA, family members said they could often determine how things were going in Czechoslovakia or other world hot spots by how many Bach sonatas Chesnut played when he came home at night. A three-sonata night meant a crisis somewhere in the world.

Chesnut was born in Waco, Texas, and grew up in Dallas. He enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin at the age of 15 and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Spanish and German in four years.

He also studied linguistics at the University of Chicago and was working on his doctorate at the University of Michigan when the looming World War II prompted him to take a position with the Foreign Broadcast Information Service.

His job was to monitor German radio transmissions to South America in Spanish and Portuguese. (He was conversant in all the Romance languages, as well as Russian.)

During the war, Chesnut served as an officer in naval intelligence. Joining the NSA after being discharged, he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, serving on Okinawa and Taiwan and in Washington, D.C.

He returned to the NSA after the war and worked for the agency until his retirement in 1979.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Louise Woolfolk Chesnut of Arlington; two children, Anne Giddings Chesnut of Charlottesville, Va., and John Winston Chesnut of Los Osos, Calif.; and two grandsons.