DEER ISLE – Frank Robbins Chapman Jr. died Feb. 1, 2008, at the Maine Veterans’ Home, Bangor. Frank was born Oct. 28, 1923, at Harper Hospital, Detroit, to Frank Robbins Chapman and Lou Blackwood Chapman; his father – an architect, and his mother. Frank, known within and without the family as “Bob,” lived near the corner of Collingwood and 14th Streets in Detroit, in early life and subsequently removed with the family to Chicago Boulevard, Detroit, Mich., where he attended Doty School. In 1935 his father built a new house in the countryside north of Rochester, Mich., on Mead Road, Oakland County, where Frank attended Rochester schools through grade seven. He finished secondary level training at Cranbrook School, Bloom-field Hills, Mich., graduating in 1942. Yale University was the site for three degrees in architecture and city planning, Bachelor of Arts ’47, March ’49 and MCP ’54. He had also been accepted at Dartmouth, his father’s institution, and the U.S. Naval Academy. His town-planning thesis was a design for the St. Lawrence Seaway and a new town within it. Mr. Chapman was three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After graduation, Frank boarded a revamped C4 troop carrier in 1947 for Europe. He was accepted and completed a year’s study of architecture and urban planning at Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan, Stockholm, Sweden. Frank subsequently spent 11 years working in Sweden, where he became a member of the Swedish Architects’ Association, SAR, and The Royal Bachelors’ Club of Gothenburg. He also was employed for three years in Copenhagen, Denmark, as an architect. He worked in Canada, Brazil and in Botswana, where he served as chief planner for the Ministry of Surveys and Lands, and as an adjunct for the UNDP. There he married his Swedish fianc?e, Barbro Haller, of Gothenburg, Sweden, in the year 1970. The pair returned to Sweden driving their short wheelbase Land Rover 14,000 miles through Africa and Europe. Crossing the Atlantic, the pair took up residence in Hilton Head Island, S.C., working there, residing seven years on their 30-foot sloop. Suffering the “oil crisis” of 1975, the pair accepted another UN post in Saudi Arabia, where they remained until 1981. Frank served first as a councilman on the Hilton Head town council and eventually was elected mayor in 1993 and served a single term. As mayor, he resisted further commercialization of Hilton Head Island, S.C. In 1999 Frank and Barbro sold the house they had built upon return from Saudi Arabia and removed to Deer Isle, constructing there yet another house located on ocean frontage. He is survived by his wife, Barbro; sisters, Mary Lou Ingwersen and Doris C. Hinds; as well as six nieces and four nephews. Memorial contributions in Frank’s memory may be made to Island Heritage Trust, 420 Sunset Road, P.O. Box 42, Deer Isle, ME 04627. Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 141 South St., Blue Hill. Condolences may be expressed online at www.jordanfernald.com.
FRANK ROBBINS
