James McNaughton Hester (19 April 1924 – 31 December 2014) was an internationally recognized educator. Hester was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. He spent his boyhood at various stations to which his father, a United States Navy Chaplain, was assigned, including Hawaii and Samoa. In 1942, he was graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. He attended Princeton University, where he won honors in the humanities, election to Phi Beta Kappa, and was awarded an A.B. degree in 1945. After joining the United States Marine Corps' officer candidate programme, he was trained to be a Japanese-language officer. He subsequently served in Japan in a civilian capacity as the civil information and education officer on the Fukuoka Military Government Team.