David Chappelear, retired vice president of research and engineering and director of new technology at Johnson & Johnson’s consumer-products division, died peacefully Jan. 10, 2015, at 83.
Chappelear earned a degree in chemical engineering from Yale in 1953 and then served as a first lieutenant in the Army for two years. In 1960, he earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton. For more than 20 years, he was at Monsanto, where he supervised the development of various plastic products and received several patents. During that time, he also taught graduate courses in chemical engineering at UMass, Amherst.
In the early 1980s, Chappelear led polymer research and development at Raychem Corp. in California before relocating to New Jersey and joining Johnson & Johnson in 1983. He worked in the consumer-products division until retiring in 1995. Though an executive, he always enjoyed the technical, problem-solving side of his work. He was named a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1986.
For Princeton, Chappelear was an APGA board member and officer and a member of the ABPA and the Advisory Council of the chemical engineering department.
Chappelear is survived by two sons, five grandchildren, and Dorothea Webster, his companion of more than 20 years.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.