HVC & RAM - Key Persons

Stan Chapman, Chuck's son, worked in the shop growing up and developed an interest in rebinding Bibles and other books, which his aunt did for a few years in a shop next to the bookbinders. Stan learned rebinding from his grandfather and father, but they declined to offer the service to the public when the aunt retired. While studying at Abilene Christian University to be a teacher, Stan worked at the shop and talked his father into letting him provide rebinding services. As Chuck began to talk of selling the business and retiring, the possibility of someone outside the family owning H.V. Chapman & Sons prompted Stan to reconsider buying the company. After talking over in 1987, Stan began implementing some of his own ideas. Homer continued to work at the shop, focusing primarily on gold leaf stamping, until his full retirement in 2007 at the age of 87. While grandfather and father always rented manufacturing spaces - spending 15 years each in three different downtown locations - Stan opted to purchase a building. Ironically, in 1991 he settled on the original business location at 802 North 3rd Street, which was dilapidated by the early-1990s. Renovations took six to eight months.