Idalia P. Chestnut; Founder of Human Rights Groups

Idalia P. Chestnut, 88, a schoolteacher in the rural South during the Depression, a public health nursing director for Los Angeles after World War II, and founder of several human rights and self-help organizations in Los Angeles County. A resident of Wilmington, Mrs. Chestnut helped found the Harbor Human Relations Council, Parents Who Care--a group that tries to help young criminal offenders--and Joint Efforts, a San Pedro drug rehabilitation center. She was one of the first honorees of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission after it was established in 1959. In Norwalk on Dec. 29 of cancer.