In 1983, Dr. Joe Chapman arrived on North Georgia College campus as a music teacher on a mission. And that mission was to confirm whether or not North Georgia College actually existed.
“I had never heard of this place,” he said with a laugh.
All that changed when Chapman found a help-wanted flyer in his inbox at work, advertising for a position at the then-unknown school in an equally unknown town called Dahlonega.
At the time the 25-year-old was teaching piano at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. And he has a distinct memory of the school secretary holding the flyer over a trash can, asking if she wanted him to throw away that fateful slip of paper.
Thankfully, Chapman salvaged the flyer and submitted his resumé.
Forty years later the senior music faculty member and Piano Division Coordinator is synonymous with the musical soundtrack of the University of North Georgia.
Last week, The Nugget caught up with Chapman as he looked back on his first four decades on the job.
“I’ve seen so many things change,” he said. “When I came here there were 1,700 to 1,800 students total. The faculty was small and at the beginning of the year we’d go out to Pine Valley for potluck. And we’d all bring something and we sort of knew each other. I still know a lot of folks, but there’s so many I don’t know.”
Indeed much has changed at North Georgia College. For starters it’s now the University of North Georgia. And that 1,800 student population has grown to 18,000 across multiple campuses.
Chapman said these changes have brought a level of “formality” to teaching that just wasn’t there during his first years.
“When I came to North Georgia and I had my faculty orientation they took us to the library and showed us how to use the card catalog,” he said with a chuckle.
Now there’s constant required training and seminars. For example, prior to his interview, Chapman was participating in a required cyber security module.
Chapman shrugged. He knows that doesn’t have much to do with the piano, but it’s part of the job.
Of course advancements in technology also mean access to music of every kind. Chapman remembers the difficulties of studying particular musical pieces prior to the internet.
“My students would have to go to the library and hopefully find the record,” he said. “… It wasn’t automatic. Now they get out their phone and go to Youtube and you can hear the greatest piano pieces in the world.”
THE VIEW FROM NIX
One thing that hasn’t changed too much for Chapman is the view from his trusty post in the Nix building, now officially referred to as the Nix Mountain Cultural Center.
“Basically that view from 1983 is pretty much the same,” he said. “Now, if you turn around you look back toward town, it’s entirely different. But the drill field is sort of a constant in this ever shifting landscape for both the college and the town. That field out there is the same that it was 40 years ago.”
And his love of teaching has remained a constant as well.
Chapman enjoys the process of seeing the occasionally cocky freshman come in and find their direction into adulthood.
“Somehow between 18 years old and 21 years old there is pretty much a wake up call,” he said. “When I see that person at 21, they’re a different individual.”
For Chapman, his career path has always been clear. Though it wasn’t always easy. He remembers fighting the urge to leave the keyboard behind and go play in the yard as a kid.
“When I was 11 or 12, sometimes some of my buddies in the neighborhood would be in my backyard playing football and I was at the keyboard practicing,” he said with a shake of his head.
But soon all that practicing paid off.
“By the time I was 15, I got to where I could play a lot [of music] that the students at school liked,” he said. “I played a little Boogie Woogie and things that were popular. And instead of being the geeky guy at the keyboard, they were like ‘Hey that’s pretty cool.’ And I turned that corner and never looked back.”
It was then that he knew his future would be a musical one.
“By the time I was 17 I wanted to be right here doing what I’m doing now,” he said. “People usually change their career path and what they want to do. I never did.”
In the same way, many of the major events of his life have been centered around the keyboard. In fact, he was sitting at the piano when he first met the love of his life Janey.
“We met in choir practice and it was all over,” he said. “And four years later we were married.”
That musical meeting led to a family of five kids which includes Joseph, Hannah, Naomi, Elisabeth and Jeremiah. Some of his children have followed in his musical footsteps as Hannah is now the chorus teacher at Lumpkin County High School while Naomi teaches piano and voice lessons.
LIFE LESSON
Now that Chapman has reached his 40th year on the job, he has no plans to slow down.
Retirement is not an option when you enjoy what you’re doing. And that’s the sense of purpose he hopes his students will adopt as they map our their careers.
One of those individuals was Matthew Lowrance, a student who Chapman remembers distinctly because he followed his dream, even though it led him away from music.
For Lowrance, Chapman’s guidance had an impact on his life that he felt outside the classroom.
“I have had the opportunity to be mentored by many educators and leaders all over the country,” he told The Nugget. “I have also attended and graduated from several universities since my time in Dahlonega. None have had the impact and influence in my life and career like my time and relationship with Dr. Joe Chapman. With too many memories to mention, the one thing that remains constant is the care, commitment and love that he gave to me as his student.”
In 1998, then-student Lowrance was involved in a traumatic car accident. And Chapman was there for him at a time Lowrance needed much more than a music teacher.
“There I sat in a hospital bed, shaken to my core but alive,” he said. “As the only survivor of a tragic car accident, not knowing what was really going on and unaware of truly how long the road to recovery was going to take, I wasn’t alone. Dr. Joe Chapman was there holding my hand.”
Lowrance’s road to recovery ultimately convinced him to move from music to a medical career.
“He was a tuba player,” Chapman said. “A very fine tuba player. But he came to me right at the end of his junior year and said ‘I want to go to medical school.’”
Years later, Lowrance is a well known doctor of osteopathic medicine and an innovator in ophthalmic surgery. And he credits Chapman for guiding him through that transition from music to medicine.
“His wisdom and guidance at that time helped me get the necessary classes and direction I needed to get on the right path for success in medicine,” Lowrance recalled. “ … The way he went about his craft and the manner in which he touched the lives of those he was around is truly special. It taught me as much about how to care for patients as my medical training did.”
Indeed, Chapman’s advice has guided hundreds of students over his 40 years of instruction in Dahlonega. So what if he could go back in time and share some words of wisdom with that 25-year-old who first set foot on campus in 1983?
Well, Chapman would keep it simple.
“I would say ‘Young man just do what you’re doing,’” he said with a grin. “Don’t change a thing.”
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Chapman will present a faculty piano recital at the University of North Georgia Gloria Shott Performance Hall on Friday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 26 at 3:00 p.m. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. For more information, contact the UNG Music Department at 706-864-1423 or online here.