Edward Young Chapin III
Former Rock City Gardens President and Board Chairman Edward Young Chapin III died Sunday at his Lookout Mountain home.
Mr. Chapin was born on Jan. 17, 1923 to Edward Young Chapin, Jr. and his wife, Dorris Carter Chapin. He graduated from the McCallie School in 1940, and from there, went on to Princeton University. A member of the class of 1944, he graduated a year early in order to accept his commission in the U.S. Army. He served as an artillery observation pilot in the European Theatre in World War II, attaining the rank of first lieutenant.
After the war, he worked with Volunteer State Life Insurance Company for two years before joining his uncle, Garnet Carter, at Rock City Gardens. He became president of Rock City Gardens in 1950, later serving as chairman of the board until his retirement in 1986. He was a longtime member of the Church of the Good Shepherd on Lookout Mountain.
A prominent civic leader in Chattanooga throughout his life, he served as president of the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, Chattanooga Rotary Club, Metropolitan Council for Community Services, United Way, and the Allied Arts Fund of Greater Chattanooga. He was an active board member of the McCallie School, American National Bank, the Hunter Museum, and Memorial Hospital, among others. For many years, Mr. Chapin served as a trustee for the Benwood Foundation, a position he said “has been the most rewarding experience in my working with other citizens for the betterment of Chattanooga.”
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Mildred Toner Chapin, his second wife, Hilda Hude Chapin, his son, Edward Young Chapin IV, and his sister, Dorris Chapin Wells.
He is survived by his children and their spouses: Garnet Carter (Nina) Chapin, Mary Chapin (Ken) Young, William Henry (Joan) Chapin, and James Inman (Erin) Chapin, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Graveside services will be Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Forest Hills Cemetery.