LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Longtime Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Kathryn Nelson Chapman died early Wednesday morning of unspecified causes. She was 57.
Doctors told Chapman as recently as two weeks ago she was cancer-free after a bout with the disease which began in late 1994. She was hospitalized April 17 with pneumonia and a fever. During the biannual meeting of the seminary’s board of trustees, trustees prayed for Chapman after seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. announced that she was in grave condition.
Chapman was elected the Gaines S. Dobbins Professor of Childhood Education in 1995. She joined the faculty of the Louisville, Ky., seminary in 1978 as assistant professor and as director of the seminary child-care center.
Chapman taught fifth grade in the Fulton County Public Schools in Atlanta from 1961-69. She served as director of children’s work at Third Baptist Church, St. Louis, from 1971 to 1977.
Mohler said, “Dr. Kathryn Chapman was a dear and cherished member of this faculty, and she will be greatly missed. She was a wonderful colleague and teacher. Her love for children was radiant. Her untimely death leaves a great hole in Southern Seminary’s heart.”
Dennis Williams, dean of Southern’s school of Christian education and leadership, said Chapman was “a valued colleague, a person who loved children. In fact her whole life was centered around ministering to children and equipping students to minister to children. She was a person who loved her students and gave her life to them.” Williams said he appreciated Chapman’s continual reminders of the rich heritage of Southern Seminary.
Chapman earned her master of religious education degree from Southern Seminary and her doctor of education from St. Louis University. She earned a bachelor of science from Georgia College, Milledgeville, Ga.
Chapman was a popular member of the seminary faculty. The December 1995 graduating class established the “Kathryn N. Chapman Student Scholarship Fund” in her honor. She was awarded the first Findley B. and Lounenia Edge Faculty Award for teaching excellence in May 1991.
Chapman wrote numerous books and articles, including the children’s books, “Who Jesus Is,” “God and I Can Talk,” and “Parenting by Grace.” She also wrote an unpublished manuscript, “Bald Before God: Discovering Cancer.”
Chapman was a longtime, faithful member of Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville. She was the church’s interim minister of childhood education from 1992-94.
Chapman is survived by a sister, Jane Chapman, and two brothers, Bill and Terry.
