Harold Everett Chapman Jr.

Harold E. Chapman Jr. Harold Everett Chapman Jr., 88, who retired as choral director for Leon High School, died Thursday, April 17, 2003. The service will be at 3:30 p.m. EDT Monday at Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church on Capital Circle and Mahan Drive, with a private burial at Roselawn Cemetery. Family will receive friends from 2 to 4 p.m. EDT Saturday at Bevis Funeral Home (385-2193). Memorial contributions may be made to Leon Friends of Music Inc., c/o Judy Arthur, 550 E. Tennessee St., Tallahassee, FL 32308. Born July 31, 1914, in Indianapolis, he spent his early years in Evanston, Ill. He attended the University of Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University's School of Music in Evanston. His post-graduate studies in music education were taken at Northwestern and Florida State University. He taught for four years in Crystal Lake, Ill., where he supervised all music in the elementary school and taught all instrumental and vocal music in the junior high school. World War II brought him and his wife, Ruth Brindley Chapman, to Florida. After the war they came to Tallahassee, where he was choral director at Leon High from 1946 to 1967. From 1967 until his retirement in 1979, he was a humanities instructor at Tallahassee Community College. The Leon High Chorus Parents Association presents annual achievement awards that bear his name. He was a district chairman, state board member and state president of the Florida Vocal Association; a life member of Phi Mu Alpha professional music fraternity; a member of Alpha Chapter, Pi Kappa Lambda honorary music fraternity; and a member of Delta Upsilon social fraternity. He was also a member of St. John's Episcopal Church, where he was a lay reader and a vestryman. Chappy, as he was known by his friends, was a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather. Nothing gave him more pleasure than sitting down at the table for a holiday meal and seeing his whole family together. So many times through the years, friends and family heard him say that he loved every day he spent teaching. He loved his students and had a great passion for what he was teaching, which his students felt. Many were inspired to continue in music or humanities. He influenced thousands of young people in Leon County. He is survived by a son, David Chapman (and wife, Diane) of Tallahassee; a daughter, Cynthia Chapman of Tallahassee; and three grandchildren, Patrick Chapman, Brian Chapman and Matthew LaFollette, all of Tallahassee. He was preceded in death by his wife.