{"id":14003,"date":"2016-06-15T10:14:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T15:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=14003"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:29","slug":"honoring-a-legend-marking-a-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=14003","title":{"rendered":"Honoring a legend, marking a milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: F. Stuart Chapin Jr. died on May 2, 2016, just a month after celebrating his 100th<\/sup> birthday.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In honor of Stu Chapin’s 100th birthday in April, alumni, faculty and friends in the department of city and regional planning raised money for graduate support.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When faculty, alumni and students gathered in April to mark the 70th<\/sup> anniversary of the department of city and regional planning, they also celebrated the 100th<\/sup> birthday of one of the department\u2019s founding members, F. Stuart Chapin Jr.<\/p>\n

Chapin joined the faculty in 1949 and retired in 1978. He authored the pioneering textbook Urban Land Use Planning<\/em>, now in its fifth edition, and is credited with leading the integration of social science into the field of city and regional planning.<\/p>\n

To commemorate his centennial birthday on April 1, the department launched a campaign to raise $100,000 in Chapin\u2019s honor to support graduate students in city and regional planning. More than 100 alumni, faculty and friends donated nearly $110,000, surpassing the original goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gifts generously extended by our alumni to celebrate Stu Chapin\u2019s legacy are important foundational building blocks to help us achieve our goals,\u201d said Roberto Quercia, professor and department chair. \u201cGifts made in his honor will strengthen our ongoing leadership in areas dear to Stu such as sustainability, climate change and land use and the environment, as well as the related areas of housing and real estate, economic development and transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA man of gentle integrity\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

After he retired in 1978, Chapin moved to White Salmon, Wash., to serve as the governor\u2019s appointee on the Columbia River Gorge Commission. At 99, he continued to be active, taking hikes and focusing on the importance of natural resource planning.<\/p>\n

His legacy lives on in Chapel Hill and beyond, both in his contributions to the field of planning and in the relationships he formed. He and his wife also established an endowment at Carolina, the F. Stuart Chapin Jr. and Mildred L. Chapin Endowment Fund, which supports natural resource planning and management in the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a faculty member, he was a real mentor to so many people, both master\u2019s and doctoral students,\u201d recalled Emil Malizia, professor emeritus and former chair of the department. \u201cHe was a master practitioner\u2014he was the ultimate professional planner, but he was also a scholar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Brail earned his Ph.D. in planning in 1969 and had a distinguished academic career in planning at Rutgers University. Stu Chapin was his mentor and thesis advisor. He recalled that Chapin invited him to join a small group class on urban spatial structure in his second year of the master\u2019s program, which ultimately led him to join the doctoral program.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very instrumental in my career,\u201d Brail said. \u201cHe was very warm, respectful, very professional and very organized. I think the word to describe him would be integrity\u2014he is a man of gentle integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank Skrivanek, who earned his master\u2019s degree in planning under Chapin in 1954 and enjoyed a distinguished career in city planning in Honolulu, says he owes his career to Stu Chapin.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Chapin taught me that if I\u2019m taking a job, I\u2019ve got to know something about the economics of that area,\u201d Skrivanek recalled. \u201cIs it a city that has enough jobs to support its people, or is it a satellite community where they are dependent on other cities? He always said that you\u2019ve got to know if the community is growing. When you do land-use planning, you have to accommodate those growth possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Godschalk (\u201964 MRP, \u201971 Ph.D.), who studied under Chapin as a graduate student and co-wrote a later edition of Urban Land Use Planning<\/em>, also recalls Chapin\u2019s quiet, calm demeanor and the brilliant mind behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was amazing personally,\u201d said Godschalk, the Stephen Baxter Professor Emeritus in the department. \u201cHe was very modest and quiet, but underneath that modesty he had a very strong and curious mind that seemed to be working all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Godschalk attributed much of Chapin\u2019s success to his dual identity as a planner and a scholar.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people had their lives changed by Stu,\u201d continued Godschalk. \u201cThe thing that made him special was that he really understood what the two big questions were for city planners: \u2018How do cities grow and develop?\u2019 and \u2018How can planners guide that growth toward community goals?\u2019 He put those two things together, and I think that\u2019s what\u2019s given his work such staying power over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make a gift in Stu Chapin\u2019s memory, visit http:\/\/planning.unc.edu\/giving<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Joanna Cardwell, M.A. \u201906<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: F. Stuart Chapin Jr. died on May 2, 2016, just a month after celebrating his 100th birthday. When faculty, alumni and students gathered in April to mark the 70th anniversary of the department of city and regional planning, they also celebrated the 100th birthday of one of the department\u2019s founding members, F. Stuart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47767,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003\/revisions\/47767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}