Robert Bruce Chapman

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by James E. Drummond on March 18, 2008:

May the Good Lord Bless and Keep you, Robert. My closest association with you was not as a cadet but when we reported in to the Department of Earth, Space and Graphic Sciences together in June 1962. You were coming out of Southern Cal and I was reporting in from the U of Arizona. You had studied Aerospace Engineering at USC but you quickly, with your inquisitive mind, became an expert in Geomorphology; you became the Academy expert on the science of land forms and the book you authored and over which you labored for a full year, "The West Point Atlas of Landforms", became a best-seller in the field. You were a superb instructor, not only in Physical Geology, but in Astronomy-Astronautics. When we left West Point in the summer of 1965, we both headed to FA Career Course at Ft. Sill. We finished the Ft. Bliss portion of that course in February with orders in our pockets to go the Bragg for the Military Assistance Training Advisor (MATA) Course and then we both left for Vietnam in May 1966 ... and we both were sent to CGSC at Leavenworth on our return. Leavenworth was where our paths parted, probably because you were tired of carrying me for all those years. You headed for the Pentagon to work for Dr. Allen Einthoven as one of the early stars in ORSA where you again distinguished yourself as one of the Army's brightest intellectual stars. Through all the years we served in the Army, I always thought you were one of the smartest, most innovative soldiers I had ever met. You could take a problem apart, put it back together in a sequence of logical steps for resolution better than anyone I have ever seen. Your lovely wife, Phyllis, was a leader among the class wives while we were at West Point, and your daughter, Jennifer, was a great friend of my daughter at both West Point and Fort Sill. Rest in Peace, Bob, and thank you for your faithful friendship. And be sure to check in with your old golfing hero, Julie Boros, when you get some free time.

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