Obituary for Alan Chapman, former Rice dean of engineering

Obituary for Alan Chapman, former Rice dean of engineering

BY JADE BOYD and PATRICK KURP
Special to the Rice News

Former Rice University dean of engineering and collegiate athletics advocate Alan Chapman, a former president of both the NCAA and the Southwest Conference, died Dec. 4 at a Houston hospital after a long battle with cancer. He was 82.

ALAN CHAPMAN

A beloved instructor, Chapman taught at Rice for a record 60 years.

Outside of Houston, Chapman was best-known as an ardent proponent of collegiate athletics. He was elected president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1973. During four decades of service to the NCAA, Chapman volunteered on more than 20 standing and special committees. He also served as the NCAA’s parliamentarian for more than 30 years.

At the time of his death, Chapman was the Harry S. Cameron Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Rice. He played many roles at the university, but he’s perhaps most fondly remembered for his teaching. His 60 years in the classroom is a Rice record that will likely never be broken.

He was a five-time winner of Rice’s George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching. In 1984 he was honored with the school’s highest teaching award, the George R. Brown Award for Excellence in Teaching. Although he formally retired in 1995, he continued to teach a class each semester until 2006.

Chapman was also a noted administrator and researcher who served on numerous committees, including the faculty committee on athletics. He chaired the Department of Mechanical Engineering three different times, was vice president for administration for a year and was the first dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, from 1975 to 1980.

“One of my most delightful moments coming in as the new dean of engineering at Rice was meeting Alan Chapman, the founding dean of the Brown School of Engineering,” said Sallie Keller-McNulty, dean of engineering. “He was able to provide sage advice that has served me well in my position.”

Rice Engineering Alumni named Chapman its Outstanding Engineering Alumnus in 1983. His dedication was further recognized when he received the Association of Rice Alumni’s Gold Medal in 1999.

Bart Sinclair, associate dean of the School of Engineering, said, “To quote from a letter written by David Hellums, Alan’s successor as dean of engineering at Rice, written in 1982, ‘He is a very able administrator who would do any job for his university. But his main interest has always been in teaching and working with students.’ That was as true at the end of his life as it was 25 years ago.”

Chapman’s research specialties included heat transfer and thermodynamics, and he authored 12 books on those subjects. His classic text, “Heat Transfer,” first published in 1960, went through four editions. His many professional accomplishments included research that was critical in the development of helmet visors used on the moon by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.

“I remember one day when a mechanical engineering student was walking down the hall with a dazed look on her face,” said Enrique Barrera, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. “I asked how she was, and she said, ‘I just took a class from the man that taught my grandfather.’ I knew right away that she was talking about Alan.”

Chapman was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Houston’s Lamar High School in 1940. He had no intention of attending Rice or becoming a teacher. But the country was still reeling from the Great Depression, and his parents told him to attend Rice, which then had no tuition. He went to school year-round, finishing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in just three years.

After a year in the U.S. Navy, Chapman joined Rice’s faculty in 1946. Studying during the summers, he earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1949 and his doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1953.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, South Texas Section, created the Alan J. Chapman Award in 1980 to “honor an individual member who through sustained endeavor and diligent service has furthered the goals of ASME and of the profession of engineering.”

In 1990, Rice alumni Melbern and Susie Glasscock endowed the Alan J. Chapman Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering, which is awarded annually to an outstanding junior in mechanical engineering.

“Alan contributed to Rice and the Rice community in a broader way than almost anyone I have known,” said Sidney Burrus, former dean of the engineering school and the Maxfield Oshman Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “He was a fine teacher, a great textbook writer, a fine department chair and dean and a wonderful friend. He is one of the few Rice folks who have been here longer than I have. I will truly miss him.”