Editor's note: Dr. John E. Chapman, dean of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine from 1975 to 2001, died last month. For most of that time Jan Lotterer was by his side as an employee of the Dean's Office. Dr. Chapman was a man who enjoyed life, and here Jan remembers some of the fun times with the man she called Deano.

The entrance and quadrangle area of the School of Medicine was named in honor of Chapman and his wife Judy jean upon his retirement.

Some of the stories I'll remember when I think of Dean Chapman:

· I had a cat named Murphy and Deano had his killer Pekingese dogs. We talked about our "kids" every day. He would ask me how Murphy was and I would ask how the dogs were (I could never remember their names because they were named after characters in the Mikado--like Tittipo, Pitising, etc.). One Christmas I had an open house to unveil my "all duck" Christmas tree. Because there were lots of people crowded into my small condo, I closed Murphy in my bedroom upstairs. The Dean and his wife Judy Jean were in attendance as well as Patsy Sanders, the Dean's assistant and my good friend. I didn't find out until a few days later that Patsy had taken the Dean and Judy Jean up to find Murphy, who was hiding under my bed, along with a piano keyboard and lots of dust bunnies. My mother was horrified that the dean of the School of Medicine had seen under my dirty bed. But it didn't seem to faze the Dean. He started telling everyone that he had seen under my bed, but he wouldn't continue the story, he would leave it right there! I remember walking by his office one day and a stranger was standing inside the Dean's doorway. I heard him say "See that woman right there? I've seen under her bed." And then he started talking about something else! I stopped dead in my tracks and went back and made him explain the story. He loved doing that and would take great delight in watching me backtrack trying to explain. A thought just occurred to me--I house sat for the Dean and Judy Jean many, many times--had I been on my toes every time I heard him say he'd seen under my bed, I should have said something like "Oh yeah, well I've slept in your bed!" Then we'd see who was back-tracking the fastest!

· The Dean and I are from the same town, Springfield, Mo. Oftentimes, he would give me assignments to carry out while I was home visiting. I was always supposed to go by his childhood home on Pickwick Street. And one time I went to the SMSU bookstore to get him "something with the SMSU emblem on it" to put on his already unbelievably crowded coffee table in his office. But the best assignment was one Christmas when he asked me to go to the cemetery and take a picture of the graves of his mother and father! It snowed in Springfield that Christmas--a lot--but my sister and I found ourselves traipsing through the ankle-deep snow, scraping off headstones to find the right ones. We did find them and Deano was most grateful for the pictures I brought back to him.

· Being involved in more than 20 Cadaver Balls, I watched Dean Chapman portray everything from Yoda to an Olympic athlete. It was always amusing to assist the Dean in preparation for the character he was portraying. The best one, however, was when he was to be a Johnny Cash look-alike, Dean Johnny C., and was to sing a song that has been rewritten about Vanderbilt Med School and the students. Janelle Owens and I spent hours with the Dean in his office trying to teach him the song, but by his own admission, he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. He couldn't get it--monotone was all that came out of him and he had absolutely no sense of rhythm. His performance at the Ball was so bad it was hilarious--but we all agreed he would never sing again.

· Several years ago there was a file clerk in D-3300, Tweety McKissack. Tweety and Dean Chapman became big buddies and would often be found on Saturday mornings watching the Smurfs on the TV in the conference room! Tweety became terminally ill with cancer and so a whole group of us went to see her at her home. The Dean was the only "administrator" who went with us. We all milled around Tweety's home and soon I noticed Dean Chapman sitting beside Tweety on the couch, just holding her hand, not saying anything. He sat with her like that for most of our visit. As we were leaving, I told Dean Chapman how much it had touched me to see him sit with Tweety like that and what comfort it must have brought her. He looked at me with that familiar twinkle in his eye and said, "The reason I sat there so long is because I couldn't take my eyes off the velvet Elvis over the fireplace!"

· He loved to gossip and loved to be included in juicy tidbits that were circulating around the Medical Center. I can still see Andrea Carroll rushing up to my desk to tell me some "really big poop" and then she'd say, "C'mon, let's go tell the Dean!"

· One of the Dean's claims to fame was that he allegedly sewed up Ricky Nelson's split lip on the set of Rio Bravo, which also starred John Wayne. Not long ago, I remember him telling one of our young file clerks about this and the kid looked at the Dean and said, "Who's Ricky Nelson?" The Dean looked at me and said, "I guess I really am old now, aren't I?"

· One time the Dean hurt his finger when he closed the trunk of his Cadillac on it. The injury got infected and he ended up in the hospital. Jane (Tugurian), Andrea and I went to Target to get him some things to occupy him while he was in the hospital. Of course we started in the toy section and got him things like bubbles, a paddle ball, and other cheap toys. But the best thing we got him was a Ren doll (of the Ren and Stimpy show, remember them?). On the show, Ren had a small problem with flatulence and thus, so did the Ren doll. After we got asked to leave Target (we caused quite a disturbance by our excessive laughter) we hurried to the Dean's room and presented him with his gifts. When we gave him Ren, I thought he was going to fall out of the bed he was laughing so hard. To this day, I can see picture all of us doubled over and can still hear our laughter. That's the way I want to remember our Deano...

· And, finally, some words of wisdom he left with us: When lasik eye surgery first was introduced and I was considering having it done he said: "Jan, don't screw with your eyes, they're the only one you'll ever have."

And one more, about balding men: "Don't ever trust a man with a comb-over-- he's already telling a lie."

We're all going to miss him.