Noted English Professor, Dramatist, Dies at 81

Robert Chapman, an English professor who wrote a stage adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd but found his truest calling in teaching and directing, died last month at the age of 81.

He served as director of the Loeb Drama Center from 1960 to 1980, and taught in the English department from 1950 until he retired in 1989.

Chapman had lived in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., since retiring from teaching and directing.

In 1951, he tried his hand as a playwright, and with Louis O. Coxe he wrote the stage version of Herman Melville's Billy Budd.

The play debuted on Broadway in 1951 and won accolades from The New York Times, which called it "extraordinarily skillful." It was made into a movie in 1962.

But Chapman was most proud of his teaching and directing, according to Jonathan C. Miller '72, his former student who is now general manager of the American Repertory Theater.

"He saw himself as a man who studied the theater rather than one who wrote theater," Miller said.

Chapman was a popular lecturer and, according to Miller, had many undergraduate friends.

He taught popular courses in restoration and postmodern drama. He also taught a course on George Bernard Shaw, a playwright he greatly admired.

"His classes were wildly attended even though they were tough subjects," said Andre S. Bishop '70, a former student of Chapman's who is now the artistic director of the Lincoln Center in New York.

Those who knew him remember him as a man of sophistication and wit.

"He was a very urbane and mild-mannered person," Bishop said. "He had the beautiful ability to inspire respect or terror in people."

Joanne C. Hamlin, whose late husband George E. Hamlin was the producing director of the Loeb during Chapman's tenure, said that Chapman would often say controversial things to spark a discussion with students.

"He loved getting a rise out of his students," she said.

Miller described in an e-mail message the excitement of Chapman's first lectures.

"[It] was always packed; some of us went back for the first lecture after we'd already taken the course," he wrote. "After some banter scaring underclassmen into the seats in front of the auditorium, Professor Chapman launched into his venomous lecture on Cyrano, with particular attention to the character Roxanne. Later in the course Professor Chapman discussed with much more admiration the works of George Bernard Shaw."

Bishop said that he remembered how hard it was to please Chapman.

"He was widely respected, and you really wanted his approval but he gave it very sparely," Bishop said.

"He was often very, very critical of many things in the theater," Hamlin said.

Harvard awarded Chapman an honorary masters degree in 1956.

Chapman was born in Highland Park, Ill. and graduated in 1941 with a bachelor's degree from Princeton University.

During World War II, he served in naval intelligence in Morocco and Europe and later taught at Princeton and Berkeley before coming to Harvard.

Chapman, who died Sept. 27, is survived by a sister, Joan Chapman, of Davie, Fl.