THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608160054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 84 lines
IT MUST have been an unusual week for retired Col. Max Chapman and his wife, Helen, as the lifelong Republicans sat before the television set in their Churchland home watching the Republican National Convention in San Diego.
For as they sat watching and rooting for Bob Dole, President Bill Clinton and his family were spending the week at their son's 880-acre resort ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Their Portsmouth-born son, Max C. Chapman, also a Republican, is the managing director of Nomura Securities Co. of Tokyo, a global giant in the securities industry. He's also chairman of the board of Nomura Holding America and vice chairman of the American Stock Exchange.
But in Atlantic Coast Conference country he is best known as the University of North Carolina football player who, in 1963, kicked the winning 42-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the Duke-UNC game. That kick earned the Tar Heels an invitation to the Gator Bowl.
So, why would Max C. Chapman, 61, be turning his 880-acre resort ranch in the Grand Tetons over to the Clintons, you have to wonder.
``Max felt politics didn't enter into it,'' his mother explained when I phoned. ``He feels if you have the opportunity to provide facilities for the president, that's what you do.''
She said the presidential visit began because of a connection made while her son was earning his economics degree at UNC.
``When he was at Chapel Hill, Max became good friends with a Deke fraternity brother, Erskine Bowles. Bowles was, until three months ago, deputy chief of staff for White House operations.
``Erskine approached Max about using the ranch during a visit there with his wife last summer,'' she said. ``While they were guests at the ranch, President Clinton was also in Jackson Hole. He and Max played golf and seemed to get along.''
She said her son was later invited to dine with the Clintons at the White House. When the president began looking for a place to stay at Jackson Hole prior to the Democratic Convention, nothing turned up and her son made his ranch - the Bar B Ranch - available.
Helen Chapman said the ranch was a likely choice because it can be readily guarded by the Secret Service. ``It's about two miles from the gate to the house and easily secured,'' she said.
The Bar B Ranch is on the Snake River, which has an abundance of trout. There are also plenty of horses for riding. And the ranch is next to a golf course.
``It's in the heart of the Grand Tetons, and the view from any direction is like a postcard,'' she said.
TV news crews accompanying the president have shown scenery around the ranch, including horses nibbling at grass in the meadows.
Helen Chapman said her son and daughter-in-law moved into a house nearby so the Clintons could have the spread to themselves.
``I've only talked to my son once since the Clintons got there,'' she said. ``All he said about it were that there are hordes of press camped at the gate.''
Helen Chapman takes a dim view of the press. She reminded me of the beastly way the media handled President Eisenhower's return to the White House after hospitalization for a heart attack. Those reporters were ``like vultures,'' she said.
Her husband, a retired Marine colonel, formerly served as president of Lees-McRae Presbyterian College in North Carolina before moving back to Hampton Roads.
They are both more than nominally Republican. Each has served as chairman of the Republican Party of Portsmouth.
Helen Chapman has enjoyed viewing the Republican National Convention, but abhors what she regards as the excessive influence of the Christian Coalition on her party.
``I think as a group they are narrow and intolerant of anyone's view but their own,'' she declared. ``They are driving traditional, moderate Republicans from our party and alienating conservative Democrats who once voted for our candidates in elections,'' she added.
She was pleased that Colin Powell had issued an appeal for tolerance in his speech on Monday night, she added.
Helen Chapman didn't find her son's offer of his ranch to the President in the least unusual. She noted that both her husband and son have been Marine officers.
``My son feels one must treat the president with great respect because he is, after all, our commander-in-chief,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color AP photo
In the saddle: President Clinton with daughter Chelsea at the Bar B
Ranch by CNB