Lion of the Week

Jim Chapman

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I was born and raised in the rural area surrounding Carmi, Illinois. My father was a farmer. I am the youngest of eleven children. I attended public schools there, graduating from high school in 1946 at the age of sixteen.

I graduated from the University of Illinois in 1950 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a reserve commission as a 2d Lieutenant in the army Signal Corps. (It was possible to get my commission prior to reaching 21 years of age because the national emergency of World War II was still in effect.)

Later I returned to graduate school and got a M.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1959 and an "all but dissertation" Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in l965. Later, I got a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 1977.

I elected to stay in the army after my initial tour was over and was integrated into the regular army in 1954.

My early military career was spent primarily in tactical units. I was a paratrooper and served in both the 11th Airborne Division and the 82d Airborne Division. I served in Austria, Italy, Korea, Viet Nam and Berlin, Germany in overseas assignments. I commanded a Signal Corps depot company in Austria and Italy. I was a logistics staff officer in Eighth Army Headquarters in Korea. In Viet Nam, I commanded a Signal Corps Battalion responsible for communications in two Provinces headquartered in Nha Trang but with units deployed all the way to the Cambodian border.

In my stateside service, I became a Research and Development Specialist and an Operations Research Specialist, mostly in the Washington, D. C. area. I was a communications engineer for the system supporting the federal government when they deployed to their emergency relocation sites. I received the Outstanding Young Engineer of the Year award in 1962 for this work from the D. C, Society of Architects and Engineers.. Later I was assigned to organize and launch the Tri-Service Tactical Satellite Communications Program and establish the management office. Later, I served in the Army Combat Developments Command Headquarters, responsible for establishing requirements for equipment for army units and authorizations for equipment in various types units. My final assignment was in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where I was in the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group. In this assignment, one of the major issues I led was evaluating whether it was worth the development cost to develop the navigation satellite system (now called the Global Positioning System, GPS).

In the Army, I attended the Basic and Advanced Signal Officer courses, the Command and General Staff College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

In 1974, I retired from the army and joined the University of Tennessee Space Institute. near Tullahoma. I was primarily involved in research on advanced technologies for environmentally friendly electric power production, mostly from burning coal. I was a laboratory manager, program manager, and Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering. My personal research work was primarily in developing cost-performance models of energy conversions systems and exercising them to guide research programs. I retired at the beginning of 2000 and began working for a small company (LyTec, LLC) as a Senior Research Scientist in research for NASA and the U. S Air Force. This research primarily involved airborne or spaceborne electric propulsion or power generation. Most of this work involved applying the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD, for short) principles used in the university work to lightweight power generation or propulsion. My work concentrated on mathematical modeling of the performance, cost and weight (which is a primary measure of merit for airborne systems) of proposed systems. In an effort to reduce the weight of high field magnets, I led a two-year study of application of carbon nanotubes as superconductors for this application. These carbon fibers have 100 times the strength to weight ratio of steel.

During this period, we lived in Manchester and I operated a 180 acre 'hobby farm' in my spare time.

In 1952, I married Doris Grace Dodson from Columbia, TN. We had four children, Stephen, Catherine, Donna and James, Jr. Steve is a logistics technician in Murfreesboro. Catherine teaches agriculture subjects in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia. Donna is a dental hygienist in Murfreesboro. Jimmy (James, jr.) is General Manager and Chief Pilot at the Tullahoma Airport and also a corporate pilot. Doris and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in 2002. She died a few months later.

I met Joy Stephenson early the next year. She had been widowed for about 4 years. We quickly fell in love were and married a few months later. We live at 284 Noah in Franklin. Joy has two sons, Ken, who lives in Franklin and Sam who lives in Columbia. Between us, we have eleven grandchildren and one great-grandson. Joy's background will be covered in a separate Lion of the Week biography.

Joy and I joined the Franklin Lions Club in April 2006. We have been working in the Sight Testing. We have been trained on the use of the camera but most of our work has been in assisting Susan. I am responsible for the brooms and mops program and would appreciate any ideas on how to conduct this program more effectively. I enjoy the camaraderie in the lions club and the public service activities.

I am a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. I have been elected a Fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. I am a member of the Oak Valley Baptist Church and the Williamson County Master Gardeners Association.

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