Roger Chapman, Jr

Roger Craig Chapman Jr., 79 of Alston Brook Nursing Home passed away early Tuesday morning at Alston Brook. A funeral service will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday July 21, at Jersey Baptist Church with Rev Dr. Michael Collier, and his sons Rev. Bryan Chapman and Stephen Chapman officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. He will lie in state one hour prior to the service at the church. The family will receive friends following the service at the church. Roger was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, on August 23, 1932, to Roger Craig Chapman Sr. and Emily Louise LaRay Chapman. He graduated salutatorian from Brattleboro High School in 1950. Roger attended the University of Vermont, graduating Magna Cum Laude, with a degree in electrical engineering in 1954. In addition to his parents he was preceded in death by his sister, Emily Davenport Chapman Newton. He worked on C.D. T. programs with Bell Telephone Laboratories [AT&T], in New Jersey. In 1962, he worked in Maine and activated the button that connected the satellite “TELSTAR” with the ground station in France. He worked on Digital Transmissions, Signal Systems, and Loop Electronics. He was a member of the Telephone Pioneers, American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He retired as Director of Loop Technology after 35 years from Bell Telephone Laboratories. They were very active in church activities, whether they resided in New Jersey and North Carolina. He was active as Chairman of the Deacon Board, President of Priscilla and Aquila, sang in the adult choir, superintendents of Sunday school, played men’s basketball, played in the Hand Bell Choir, and taught Sunday School classes. Surviving Roger are his wife of 59 years, Barbara Christine Tate Chapman of the home; sons, Stephen Chapman and his wife Gail of Cape Cod Ma., and Rev. Bryan Chapman and his wife Donna, their children, Rachel, Stephen, Anna, Sarah, and Matthew, of Garner, NC.; daughter Lynn Chapman Myers and her husband, Rick, their daughter, Amber of Lexington, Heather Myers Nifong and husband Chase of Charlotte; his sister, Linda Chapman Ives and husband Wesley, and brother-in-law, Laurence Newton and his wife Anna, several nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Jersey Baptist Church Men’s #3 SS Class, P.O. Box 849, Linwood, NC 27299, or The Life Center of Davidson County, 601 West Center Street, Lexington, N.C. 27292. The family extends their appreciation, to Alston Brook Nursing, The Life center of Lexington, NC, Dr. Franklin Watkins, of The Geriatrics Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston, Salem for their care and support during Roger’s declining health with dementia.