Richard Bennie Chappell

Self-proclaimed “jabberface" Richard “Bennie” Chappell uttered his last witticism and smiled his last smile on Sunday July 30, 2017, surrounded by his beloved wife and children. He was 79 and royally pissed not to make it to 80. Frankly, he was royally pissed not to make it many more years, as he had great legs and a bubbling, youthful spirit. But a rare inoperable cancer, gliomatosis cerebri, invaded his brain, taking him out long before his time.

Born in 1938 in Atlanta, Bennie was convinced he grew up in the last, best time of America. He and his pals rode their bikes everywhere (hence the great legs), took trolleys to Saturday nickel movies, shinnied across drain pipes and dammed up the creek in the “holler" behind his house to make a swimming hole. When his dad died much too early of his own brain cancer, Bennie held down numerous jobs as paper boy, lawn mower and Coca-Cola reseller, giving all of the money to his Mama to help make ends meet.

He made sure his Boy Scouts had many of the same values and experiences when, as an adult, he became Scout leader for Troop 149 in Athens, Georgia. The tales are legend and would make the movie “Stand by Me” appear boring. His love of the outdoors led him to seek a degree in forestry from University of Georgia where he lettered in track, making lifelong friends as the social chair for Phi Delta Theta.

Though becoming a forester seemed like a good idea, the tedious days of marking trees in solitude drove him clearly crazy. It turned out that life as a real estate agent, and then a broker, was much more suited to his warm personality and outstanding verbal skills. He built a very successful business in Athens and promoted women’s rights by hiring the first female real estate agents in the area.

He didn’t stop there. He was president of the Athens Board of Realtors, and was appointed by the governor to the Georgia Association of Realtors, where he help draft a law requiring agents to take post-licensing education to keep their skills sharp and up to date. He helped found the Sandy Creek Nature Center, a 225-acre wilderness with 5 miles of walking trails, an interactive nature center and a planetarium. He helped save Athens' oldest building from demolition, the Church-Waddel-Brumby house, which sparked the historical preservation movement in Athens.

A move to the big city created an opportunity to work with Atlanta real estate legend John Portman, and Bennie made his mark there in commercial real estate—once with purple hair (the result of a mismatch between a color dye and his prematurely grey hair). Then a life-changing option arose: four years in Australia. His greeting was forever changed: G’day mate. So were those he touched in Australia. His mates there still gather around an outback campfire each year and tell the legend of their mate Bennie, who introduced them to kangaroo tenderloins and saved one of them from a deadly king snake with a well-thrown army shovel.

Bennie leaves behind many people who will struggle to make it through the day without him. His true love and wife, Sandee, and beloved step-children, Krysta and Ryan. His precious firstborn, Gregory Ann Woodruff and her husband, Buck, along with grandson Harrison, granddaughters Lillian and Carolina and great-grandson Tripp Barbato. Brannon, the best son a man could wish for, and his wife Christy. His sister Jane Grant and her children, Jimmy Grant and wife Sonia, Andy Grant and wife Julie, Lynne Grant Dunn and husband Keith. (Remember, nephews, you’d never have become the hunters and fishers you are without Uncle Bennie, because your momma married a damn Yankee). His niece Donna Roberts and her husband, Ed, nephew Larry Chappell and his wife, Margaret, and more grandnieces and -nephews that one can count.

Services were held Saturday, August 5, at 2 p.m. at H.M. Patterson and Son, Spring Hill Chapel in Atlanta. For those wishing to honor Bennie, the family requests donations at https://give.weill.cornell.edu/ways-give/make-gift Please select OTHER and type in “Chappy's GC Research for a Cure”. Checks can be mailed to Weill Cornell Medicine, 1300 York Avenue Box 314, New York, New York 10065. Please add “Memo: GC research in memory of Richard Bennie Chappell.”