Former NCAA President Alan Chapman died December 5 after a long battle with cancer. He was 82.
Chapman, who also held a leadership position with the Southwest Conference, taught at Rice University for 60 years, serving for a time as the dean of engineering.

Long considered an advocate for college athletics, Chapman served as president of the Association in 1973 and spent more than 30 years as the NCAA parliamentarian. In his 40 years of service to the Association, he served on more than 20 decision-making bodies, including the NCAA Council, the Constitutions and Bylaws Committee, the Long-Range Planning Committee, the Recruiting Committee and the Academic Requirements Committee.

A well-respected teacher, Chapman set the Rice record for longevity in the classroom. Though he formally retired in 1995, he taught one class a semester until 2006. He received countless awards throughout his career for teaching excellence and has several awards named after him, including one given by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

In his lifetime, Chapman published 12 books on heat transfer and thermodynamics. His ideas and research were key components in the development of helmet visors used on the moon by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.

Chapman graduated from Rice with a degree in mechanical engineering. After a year in the Navy, he joined Rice’s faculty in 1946, using the summers to earn a master’s degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his doctorate from the University of Illinois, Champaign.

Bart Sinclair, associate dean of the school of engineering quoted a letter written by David Hellums, Chapman’s successor as dean of engineering at Rice:

“He is a very able administrator who would do any job for his university. But his main interest has always been in teaching and working with students,” Sinclair said. “That was as true at the end of his life as it was 25 years ago.”