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Rice University Athletics
Rice Remembers Richard Chapman
8/22/2022 2:14:00 PM | Football
1932-2022
Dr. Richard Chapman '54, who earned All-America honors both on the field and in the classroom at Rice passed away on Tuesday, August 16 at age 89.
Chapman was a dominant lineman for the Owls on both sides of the ball in the early 1950's, twice being named All-Southwest Conference and he was a captain of the Owls' 1953 conference champions. His collegiate career came to a close in the sixth-ranked Owls' 28-6 win over No. 11 Alabama in the 1954 Cotton Bowl, where he (#78) had a front-row seat to one of college football's most famous plays. He was named to the Cotton Bowl All-Decade team for the 1950's. He was inducted into the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame in 1972 along with his head coach, Jess Neely.
In 2014, offensive guard Nico Carlson switched to Chapman's jersey number as one of three Honor Jerseys for that season.
Off the field, he served as class president in his junior year at Rice and he was a member of the first two CoSIDA Academic All-American teams while majoring in physics. He was named the winner of the Bob Quin Award as Rice's top student-athlete as a senior. Despite his selection as the 13th player taken in the 1954 draft by the defending NFL champion Detroit Lions, Chapman elected to return to Rice to continue his education. He obtained his Master's in 1955 and his post-doctorate degree in nuclear physics in 1957.
He began his professional career working on the design of commercial nuclear power reactors with General Electric at Vallecitos, California. In 1959, he moved to Texas Instruments Central Research Laboratories in Dallas. Dr. Chapman's first important specialty was the optoelectronic properties of semiconductors. He had a leading role in projects as varied as visible light-emitting displays, infrared detector arrays for night vision and shrinking the dimensions of transistors to permit the development of digital wristwatches, calculators, computers and cellular phones.
He was the author of 42 US Patents, 18 foreign patents, and 154 published papers.
Dr. Chapman served as a Trustee Advisor on the Rice University Board of Trustees and in 2017, he was recognized as a Rice University Distinguished Alumni.
Chapman was a dominant lineman for the Owls on both sides of the ball in the early 1950's, twice being named All-Southwest Conference and he was a captain of the Owls' 1953 conference champions. His collegiate career came to a close in the sixth-ranked Owls' 28-6 win over No. 11 Alabama in the 1954 Cotton Bowl, where he (#78) had a front-row seat to one of college football's most famous plays. He was named to the Cotton Bowl All-Decade team for the 1950's. He was inducted into the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame in 1972 along with his head coach, Jess Neely.
In 2014, offensive guard Nico Carlson switched to Chapman's jersey number as one of three Honor Jerseys for that season.
Off the field, he served as class president in his junior year at Rice and he was a member of the first two CoSIDA Academic All-American teams while majoring in physics. He was named the winner of the Bob Quin Award as Rice's top student-athlete as a senior. Despite his selection as the 13th player taken in the 1954 draft by the defending NFL champion Detroit Lions, Chapman elected to return to Rice to continue his education. He obtained his Master's in 1955 and his post-doctorate degree in nuclear physics in 1957.
He began his professional career working on the design of commercial nuclear power reactors with General Electric at Vallecitos, California. In 1959, he moved to Texas Instruments Central Research Laboratories in Dallas. Dr. Chapman's first important specialty was the optoelectronic properties of semiconductors. He had a leading role in projects as varied as visible light-emitting displays, infrared detector arrays for night vision and shrinking the dimensions of transistors to permit the development of digital wristwatches, calculators, computers and cellular phones.
He was the author of 42 US Patents, 18 foreign patents, and 154 published papers.
Dr. Chapman served as a Trustee Advisor on the Rice University Board of Trustees and in 2017, he was recognized as a Rice University Distinguished Alumni.
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