Carol (centre) with retired colleagues in 2021 on a visit to Greenbank Student Village, by invitation of the Warden, Ian Magedera (left).
Words by Alan Howe, Honorary Professor of French.
Carol Chapman, who passed away this April, aged 81, spent her entire academic teaching career at our University, where she held the post of Lecturer in French from 1968 until her early retirement some 30 years later. A specialist in French Renaissance literature, she took great pride in giving successive cohorts of students an enthusiastic appreciation of French poetry and philosophical thought during this key period in European culture. Characteristically, her early book on Montaigne, which she co-authored with François Mouret and which sought to define the author’s multi-faceted ideal of sagesse (wisdom) through a close reading of a selection of his essays, was firmly student-orientated.
Carol will also be remembered by her students as an outstanding language teacher, whose own proficiency in oral French was peerless. At a time when the term “gap year” had not yet been invented and the notion of undergraduates intercalating a year abroad had not widely caught on, Carol had decided to spend a year in France as an au pair in a French family – a decision which would have seemed very unusual and indeed brave at the time, and which illustrates the wisdom and strong commitment that students and colleagues would associate with her throughout her career. Among her colleagues Carol was also a dynamic force helping to devise and introduce new methods of teaching and examining the French language, which raised levels of student satisfaction and enhanced the University’s attraction for linguist entrants. Carol also devised and taught a new M.A. course in Practical French Language, which became very popular with serving teachers.
Pastoral roles also suited her, and she served as Senior Tutor in the Faculty of Arts for several years. Carol’s cheerful, friendly and caring nature meant that generations of students sought her out for help, with many owing their degree success to the combination of warmth and firmness that she offered in support. The extraordinary number of wedding invitations she received bears witness to their gratitude.
Besides being a central figure within the French Department (as it was then named) throughout her career, Carol was well known across our University, and until the end of her life she would also maintain friendships with countless academics who had worked in universities at home and abroad. She will be mourned too by all who encountered her through the many voluntary activities of an educational or caring nature, including school governorships and work within her parish in Liverpool, to which she devoted her busy years of retirement.