UT community mourns loss of long-time lecturer
Photo courtesy LBJ School of Public Affairs.
A noted journalist, lecturer and author died in Guatemala.
According to reports from the Austin American Statesman, 58-year-old Gary Chapman died Tuesday after an apparent heart attack.
Chapman was the director of the 21st Century Project at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He joined the school in 1994.
"The LBJ School has lost a beloved colleague, inspirational teacher, and wonderful friend. Gary was a man of shining integrity, whose memory and example we will carry with us," LBJ School of Public Affairs Dean Robert Hutchings said. "Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family and friends along with our heart-felt gratitude for a life of such profound contribution. We will miss him dearly."
Most notably, Chapman was involved in bringing computers and the Internet to low-income neighborhoods in Austin, bringing the Internet to rural areas of Texas and helping the State of Texas reform mental health care.
“Professor Chapman was an incredible teacher and mentor for students interested in technology and information policy, both undergraduate and graduate. He taught us so much about practical application of our studies for the real world, and I know he was just as inspired by his students as we were by him. I will never forget how much he cared and believed in what he was doing. He will be greatly missed,” former student Angie Pete Yowell wrote about Chapman.
He also wrote a bi-weekly column for the Austin American Statesman. According to them, he was an “Internet expert.”
Chapman was in Guatemala for a kayaking trip.
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