A principal at Sasaki Associates in Watertown, which he joined in 1964, Mr. Chapman initially assisted with master plans and environmental impact studies for large projects such as the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
He then headed the firm’s campus planning practice and worked with dozens of universities across the United States. An innovative planner who loved the outdoors, Mr. Chapman wanted to dissolve the town-gown divide that traditionally isolated campuses from surrounding communities.
“He was very interested in integrating the campuses into the natural environment and community in ways that were really forward-thinking,’’ said David Hirzel of Wayland, a friend and colleague. “He was always working to help bridge those gaps.’’
Embracing the environment in his personal life as well, Mr. Chapman rode a bike to work every day, regardless of weather.
“I can picture him riding down the street on his bicycle, in the rain, in a poncho,’’ Hirzel said. “He did it every day for 40 years.’’
Because he biked to work, his family of five needed only one car. While that meant his three daughters rarely had use of the sole vehicle, “it’s so symbolic of what he was all about,’’ his daughter said.
A longtime member of the Belmont Planning Board, which he often chaired, Mr. Chapman was also part of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Cornell University’s architectural advisory committee.
His essay “The Mature Region: Building a Practical Model for the Transition to the Sustainable Society,’’ was selected in 1982 for a Mitchell Prize. As a fellow of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, he studied the model that New England presented to the nation.
In 1984, he told the Globe that nationally, “New England, and not California, is the harbinger of things to come. . . . It is the first steady-state region, not based on the exploitation of natural resources.’’
