By Lorna Peña-Reyes Makil
August being the founding month of Silliman University is an appropriate time to remember the American missionaries who came to start the school at Dumaguete.
The year 1916 in Silliman’s history is when the Science Building was inaugurated on campus. That same year, two of the school’s memorable and beloved American missionaries, Dr. James W. Chapman and wife Ethel R. Chapman, arrived to serve until their retirement in 1950.
James, a native of Ohio, was a graduate (BA 1907, MA 1908) of Park College, a liberal arts college in Parkville, Missouri. (This is also the alma mater of the late Music & Fine Arts Prof. Albert Faurot, as well as the school where former Silliman English Prof. David V. Quemada would teach when he and his family moved to the US in the 1960s.) In 1913, Dr. Chapman was conferred a Doctor of Science in Economic Entomology (the study of insects) by Harvard University.
His early interest in church and missionary work was fulfilled when he and his wife came to the Philippines to serve at then Silliman Institute. Dr. Chapman brought with him 10 microscopes when he came to Silliman, earning for him the label “missionary of the microscope” by some colleagues and friends.
At a time when most of the schools in the Philippines made do with only one or two microscopes for their science classes, it was a luxury for Silliman Students to have more microscopes in their classes.
Since most teachers of his time would function even without the training as true specialists in their assigned fields, Dr. Chapman found himself also serving at Silliman under many hats.
Besides being in charge of the Department of Science, and head of the Biology Department, he had a heavy teaching load, and he had duties at the Buildings & Grounds, Administration, Finance, and several committees; he also served as Sunday School supervisor, Church elder, and Bible teacher; in charge of the Boy Scouts, High School military drills, Study Hall, and was adviser to the Literary Society; Registrar and Director of Summer School, as well as Dean of the Graduate School at various times.
The requirements for Silliman’s pioneer teachers were difficult, but James Chapman performed them well. He had the versatility and energy to deal with them.
My father, Prof. Alfredo Y. Reyes (BS Biology, 1931) was student assistant to Dr. Chapman, and recorded his experience–Dr. James W. Chapman: Teacher and Friend–in a narrative he wrote around 1963:
Dr. Chapman took his students on field trips to Valencia during holidays when they would do “vigorous hiking to Camp Lookout,” then spend the night at the Chapman Cottage where he would get to know more about his students personally. Tomato soup was often part of the meal, but only Dr. Chapman seemed to enjoy it.
Dr. Chapman’s Sunday School class was “always a packed class”. My father found their teacher’s insights deepened the significance of the lessons and helped him grow in his new faith (he was Aglipayan before coming to SU).
“Alumni love to recall [the Chapmans’] parental concern–the friendliness, and their interest in students not only as students but as persons…inviting the freshmen students [in small groups] for some hours of games after a filling supper…they were determined to influence the lives of these students by the example they set with their lives.”
“Dr. Chapman was a sincere and loyal friend…He was like a father to us…so full of sympathy, understanding and love that we felt the warmth of his personality…his humility was demonstrated in his manner of talking, even in the way he walked.”
Mrs. Ethel Chapman (magna cum laude in math and science, Park College) taught those subjects, as well as English literature. The late Prof. Evangeline Nobleza-Bokingo, who was her student, reminisced: “…she had a way with her eyes and head which enhanced …the lines from a poem…then [she would quote inspiring and elegant lines], teaching us that with sensitivity we, too, could find beauty even in the humble and insignificant”. (In 1950, SU conferred its first honorary degree, Master of Arts, honoris causa, on Ethel R. Chapman.)
When my father graduated and left SU, he continued his friendship with Dr. Chapman through letters, which Dr. Chapman always answered.
The Chapmans, on a trip to Mindanao once, dropped by Cagayan, and called on our family. My twin and I were infants, and they gifted us with flannel blankets.
During World War II, the Chapmans evacuated to Camp Lookout in Valencia, moving farther up to evade the Japanese, but were eventually captured ,and brought to Manila where they were interned at Sto. Tomas until liberation. (The three Chapman children were not with them during the war.)
The Chapmans wrote about their wartime experience in a beautifully-written book: Escape to the Hills (Lancaster, PA, Jaques Cattell Press, 1947).
Dr. Chapman’s fame in science rests mainly on his research on ants which was facilitated by his living in the Philippines. Before Dr. Chapman retired from SU, he had mentioned to the school administration to “contact Alfredo”.
That was around the time my father was desirous to move the family from Cagayan de Oro to Dumaguete so that we would get a Silliman education, like he and my mother had. (My mother had passed away from illness during the war.)
We did move here in 1950, but missed seeing the Chapmans who had already left for the US.
Decades later after my father’s death, my twin sister and I would meet the Chapman’s grand-daughter, Dr. Nancy J. Turner, and great grand-daughter, Kate who came to visit SU in 2015.
How my father would have been thrilled to have met the descendants of his Science professor whose teaching gave him a good start in his professional life.
As Dr. Bienvenido M. Gonzales, former president of the University of the Philippines, wrote in his foreword to the Chapman’s book, the story of how and why the Chapmans survived the war years “shows how the triple outlook of scientist, educator and missionary helped them to survive, and determined their reactions to the kind of life they had to lead…”
In memory of Dr. James W. Chapman and his family, SU will have a wall display of photos, microscopes, laboratory tables, and benches from his time, at the second floor of Silliman Hall, the exhibit to be announced later.
