UTAS professor Peter Chapman remembered as 'the quintessential academic'

Peter Chapman died peacefully in Hobart on May 31, aged 82, leaving a legacy of service to the university few could match.

Born in 1940, he attended Hutchins School, UTAS and Oxford University before spending 10 years as a farmer in Ouse.

He returned to UTAS in the mid-1970s and a stellar career followed.

Professor Chapman spearheaded the revival of Historical Records of Australia - a project making government records of colonies and states publicly available - more than 60 years after it had been discontinued.

He was also a passionate advocate for university governance, served numerous university organisations, and led the campaign to keep Tasmania's House of Assembly at 35 members, a dream that will be realised at the next election.

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Colleague and emeritus UTAS history professor Michael Bennett said Professor Chapman had been "a very loyal friend to many people over many years".

"Peter was a great raconteur, a wry observer of the vanity fair that we inhabit, with an interest in the foibles of individuals, and a capacity to describe our poses and predicaments with Dickensian precision," he said.

"I do not recall his speaking ill of others or seeing them as other than individuals.

"He was a loving husband and father and was very proud of his children. His disposition was to assume the best in people and appeal to their better nature."

His late wife Isabel, with whom he shared a long marriage of 50-plus years, died in 2021.

Professor Chapman is survived by five children and eight grandchildren.

"The world has lost some of its colour and kindness," Professor Bennett said.

"We will miss him."

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