Lasting Memories

Richard F. Chapman
Feb. 18, 1933-Oct. 12, 2012
Menlo Park, California

Dr. Richard F. Chapman passed away on Oct. 12, 2012, in Menlo Park, Calif., after decades of living and adjusting to life with multiple sclerosis.

He was the son of a pediatrician whose own father was a Congregational Church minister with deep roots in Old Saybrook, Conn. His mother graduated from Vassar and taught mathematics. Richard graduated from Yale University, like his two brothers, Rob and Ned, and he received his M.D. from Northwestern University in 1959.

Following his internship at Highland Hospital in Alameda County, Calif., he took his residency training in psychiatry at the Menninger School of Psychiatry. Dr. Chapman served as a Captain in the U.S. Army at Fort Sill where he developed a program of group mental health consultation that was used as a model for the delivery of mental health services to U.S. forces in Vietnam.

He moved to the Bay Area in 1966 with his young family and established a private practice and helped to found one of the first approved psychiatry training programs within a community mental health center. The center was an early model for the national community mental health center movement. He later became a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

He served as President of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and later as Dean of Faculty of the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, now known as Palo Alto University. He was known by many for his soft spoken manner, his enthusiastic laugh, and more than anything else his ability to inspire and encourage those around him to pursue their dreams, hopes and aspirations.

He leaves behind his loving children, Karen and Eric (Sarah) Chapman; his grandchildren, Ryan, Katie and Jack; his brother, Robert, and sister-in-law, Virginia; his nieces, Lucia and Sarah (Barry); his nephew, Robert (Laurie); as well as his devoted caregivers, Mercedes, Mildred, Marcia and Ricky.

Family services are private and those wishing to honor Dr. Chapman are asked to donate to his beloved Palo Alto University (www.paloaltou.edu/), an institution he was truly honored to be associated with for so many years.