UW Scientist Douglas Chapman, 76

Douglas George Chapman's involvement in international whaling laws helped put the brakes on the whaling industry before environmental concerns were fashionable.

As part of the International Whaling Commission's "committee of three," he was one of the first U.S. scientists to use quantitative analysis to determine the effects of international whaling on current and future populations.

The committee of three determined that virtually unrestricted international whaling had decreased the whale population to near extinction.

Mr. Chapman died at the Ida Culver House Broadview on Tuesday, July 9, from complications of pneumonia. He was 76.

Born in Provost, Alberta, Canada, he was the only child of Saskatchewan schoolteachers. Mr. Chapman married in 1943 and had three daughters.

Mr. Chapman was dean of the University of Washington College of Fisheries from 1971 to 1980, chairman of the international Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee from 1965 to 1976 and chairman of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission from 1973 to 1976. He also established the Center for Quantitative Science in Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife at the UW.

He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Saskatchewan in 1939, a master's in mathematics in 1940 from the University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate in mathematical statistics in 1949 from Berkeley.

Mr. Allen came to the UW in 1949 as assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics. He became an associate professor in 1953 and in 1957 earned tenure. He partially retired from the UW in 1983.

Besides being an internationally famed scientist, Mr. Chapman also was a gifted instructor and a patient mentor.

"He was well known as an open-door professor," said his wife, Isobel of Seattle. "He had a great empathy for his students, and was a wonderful husband and father."

Former student and UW Fisheries Professor Kenneth Chew said Mr. Chapman really had a way of teaching students. Many of the fisheries courses students take today are the ones Mr. Chapman developed in the '60s, Chew said.

"He was one of the first to use mathematics to define biological subjects and what might happen," said Chew. "Therefore, when he taught courses in quantitative science, often people from the medical school attended."

In addition to his wife, Isobel, of Seattle, Mr. Chapman's survivors include his daughters Christine Chapman Scheuler of Olympia, and Patricia Levine and Sheila Chapman, both of Seattle.

A memorial service has been set for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home.