Chester Stock (28 January 1892 – 7 December 1950) was an American paleontologist who specialized in the Pleistocene mammalian fauna of the Rancho La Brea tar pits.

His family home was destroyed by fires caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, after which he joined the California National Guard.

He was forced by circumstances to leave school and seek employment in the Union Iron Works, at which time his health declined and he came down with malaria.

He then attended the University of California, Berkeley with the intent to study medicine but, influenced by John C. Merriam, instead took an interest in paleontology.

[1] The newly founded California Institute of Technology was being expanded by R.A. Millikan, who recruited J.P. Buwalda and Chester Stock for the geology department.