Origins: The Chapman Family

Three generations of the Chapman family operated the bookbindery for 65 years. H.V. “Homer” Chapman, Sr., learned bookbinding in Dallas, where he also was a paper warehouse manager. In 1925, Homer began managing the bookbinding department of Abilene Printing and Stationery. He later struck a deal with the company to buy out his bookbinding operations.

After having served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, H.V. “Chuck” Chapman Jr helped open the business.

Homer and Chuck named the new venture H.V. Chapman & Sons because they expected Chuck’s two younger brothers to join them. Even though the younger brothers were drawn instead to other fields and only occasionally worked at the business, the name stuck.

Chuck eventually bought the business from his father. For two generations, the company primarily served as a bookbinding subcontractor to printers and publishing houses.

Stan Chapman, Chuck’s son, worked in the shop growing up and developed an interest in rebinding Bibles and other books, which his aunt did for a few years in a shop next to the bookbinders. Stan learned rebinding from his grandfather and father, but they declined to offer the service to the public when the aunt retired. While studying at Abilene Christian University to be a teacher, Stan worked at the shop and talked his father into letting him provide rebinding services.

As Chuck began to talk of selling the business and retiring, the possibility of someone outside the family owning H.V. Chapman & Sons prompted Stan to reconsider buying the company.

After talking over in 1987, Stan began implementing some of his own ideas. Homer continued to work at the shop, focusing primarily on gold leaf stamping, until his full retirement in 2007 at the age of 87.

While grandfather and father always rented manufacturing spaces – spending 15 years each in three different downtown locations – Stan opted to purchase a building. Ironically, in 1991 he settled on the original business location at 802 North 3rd Street, which was dilapidated by the early-1990s. Renovations took six to eight months.

Stan Chapman also broadened into publishing services by helping customers with design, typesetting, and print management of their books. H.V. Chapman & Sons subcontracted the actual printing of their books. Authors who were willing to market their own books at seminars, speaking engagements, and online could make a small profit on a print run as small as 500.

Rebinding also grew as the company, with four-month backlogs of orders, a common occurrence.