I just learned that Don Chapman passed away on Dec. 18.
He had been fighting leukemia for 2 years. He was a log
home builder and taught log building in Fancy Gap, Va.
I attended his class twice. I had such a good time the
first time that I went back again a couple of years later.
He was the nicest person you could ever meet. He started
"One Special Christmas" during his college days and
continued it the rest of his years. He started it by making
wooden toys for needy children and it developed into
an auction of crafted items including log homes with the
proceeds going to children. If anyone on the forum has
ever met him you'll know how much he'll be missed.
There is a website that you can post comments.
http://www.commcure.com/don/mtairynews.html
I think that is it, if not you can do a search using Chapman
Log Homes
I tried that site and it doesn't take you to the site so you'll
have to do the search.
Well, I took a few minutes and did the search. I read Don's bio, and visited the sites for the school and his log home business.
I have to say, he must have been quite a guy! I'm sure he will be missed by many, but he has left a legacy of knowledge behind. We should all hope to do as well.
I fixed up the link.
Thanks Jeff, I'm still not very computer literate.
Don was one of a kind and even though I didn't know him
that well, he has had an impact on my life. I remember
taking a tour of one of the log houses he built and thinking,
"Man, I would love to be a part of building something like
this". If you love rustic hewn log homes like I do you would
love the homes he carved out of trees. If anyone is familiar
with Hearthstone's Bob Timberlake log homes, Don is the
one that actually was involved in the design of those if I
remember correctly.
The second class that I attended of his was the construction
of a log building that was going to be like a bunkhouse for
students of his classes. He and his wife were going to build
a log home for themselves at the top of the hill up past the
bunkhouse.
Michelle came home from book club last night with the news, I'm so sad. I never met him but we had many friends in common, just always missed each other. I found out about his illness when the sawshop owner read me a note from his wife Bonnie asking us all to remember him in our prayers as he went out to Seattle.
While I was working the job I'm on now and it started looking like more restoration work was in the works one of the mutual friends said he was running a class starting the next day. I hadn't realized he was up to teaching again yet. He had seen Don a few weeks earlier at his belated homecoming party, everyone thought he was out of the woods. I e-mailed Bonnie but in the crunch of doing the class she didn't check mail till after the class. She wrote back and said Don liked the work I'd done so far and invited me out to the house to visit whenever I had time.
I had missed him a week or two earlier when he dropped by the job one evening to see how it was doing. Again friends had told him about the project and he had come to visit. He was very complimentary to the homeowner and offered the use of some of his custom tools if I wanted to use them, not many people are so generous with either. I've visited several of his houses while in construction, meeting one of his sons and crew, again missing each other.
I have never heard anything but good of Don. I'm certain he heard those words.
Well done, Thou good and faithful servant.
He was a true craftsman. He will be missed around here.
http://commcure.com/don/dcobituary.html
Would have like to met him. But I have met a few others like him.
Pray, that his kids will see the value in a life which gives unselfishly to others and how that touches the populus as a whole.
Any of you who know his family, let em know some of us here on the forum will be praying for them.
In college in 74' he must have been a young man !