“Nothing stops him. He forges ahead.”

Professor Allan Chapman visits BSU and lectures students

I wait patiently in the crowded room in Sattgast 208. The stadium seats quickly fill. Even the empty seats between strangers become occupied by eager students, waiting for Professor Chapman’s arrival. The roar of chatter among students gets louder as each minute passes. An image of Galileo is projected on the screen, probably being used as a conversation starter between students.

I look down to the front and there he is. Allan Chapman stands with his shoulders back, and gives his audience a quick scan. He is introduced and with the applause that follows, I wonder why I have not heard of him before today. Dr. Chapman starts his lecture and I have to concentrate on each word he says, trying to get used to his thick, British accent. He unhooks a small pocket watch from a gold chain that threads through the buttonhole of his hunter green vest. He flips it open, and sets it on a desk in front of him.

I can’t help but think if he was a character out of my history book. His white hair lies neatly and curls a bit at the ends. Even the bare spot on his head seems to have been neatly combed over with delicate strands of hair. His slightly crooked bowtie doesn’t disrupt the neatness of his attire. A tiny British flag pin is fastened to the collar of his clean, unwrinkled, double vented dress coat. A hanky he pulls out of his pant pocket to help his runny nose completes his outfit.

Professor Allan Chapman lectures about facts
and fallacies of aliens to students and faculty.

As he lectures the Sattgast hall, he keeps his head held high, so his voice fills every ear in the room. I could almost mistake him for a conductor in front of his orchestra with the way he uses his hands as he speaks. 

Who was this guy? Why was I so mesmerized by his lecture? Was it the flawlessness of his speech? Or was it simply his accent that I was so intrigued by? He could have been talking about how to clean a vacuum out and I still would have been interested in him speaking.  The accomplished lecturer and public speaker teaches at Oxford University. He also teaches for the study abroad programs for our school and Moorhead University. 

My journalism professor Louise Mengelkoch and her husband, Kent Nerburn, speak very highly of him. They say that students who study abroad will not only have their core classes with Chapman at Oxford University, but they will purposely enroll in other classes that he teaches. “I don’t know one student who doesn’t come back fundamentally changed from him,” Nerburn said. 

Professor Chapman was born in 1946, but he still gives lectures in front of many audiences. He is an author of many books, including England’s Leonardo, member of the Royal Astronomical Society, founder and president of the Society for the History of Astronomy, (should I keep going?) Honorary President and a member of Salford Astronomical Society, Honorary President of Reading Astronomical Society, Honorary President of the Mexborough & Swinton Astronomical Society, Honorary President of Orwell Astronomical Society, and Vice-President of the Newbury Astronomical Society. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Central Lancashire at the age of 58.

Even though he had cancer surgery recently, he continued to speak to large audiences and classrooms without missing a beat. I agree when Professor Mengelkoch says that nothing stops him. Even listening to him speak for less than a couple hours, it’s easy to believe that Allan Chapman will continue on his journey to inspire students and lecture many people. Why stop at age 65?