Wesley Owen Chapman ended his battle with Alzheimer’s and finished his race Monday, February 23, 2015, in Lincoln, Nebraska. At the age of 89 he was joyously greeted by his Savior and celebrated a grand reunion with his wife Wanda, family members, and friends who finished their race earlier.
Wesley was born on October 5, 1925, in a two-room cabin above the town of Rifle, Colorado to Milton and Iris (Slack) Chapman. He was the youngest of ten children. Wesley and his six brothers slept in a bedroom dugout in the side of a mountain across a creek that ran between the cabin and bedroom until December 21, 1943 when after turning 18, he enlisted in the Navy.
Wesley served in the Navy as an Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class, stationed on a small naval supply depot island in the Pacific Combat Theater until receiving an Honorable Discharge on June 5, 1946. He returned to his childhood home in Rifle and went to work as an electrician in an oil shale mine on Colorado’s Piceance Basin north of Rifle.
On April 6, 1950, in Canon City, Colorado, Wesley married his wartime pen pal, Wanda Fulford, and resided in Rifle until 1952 when they and their first child, Royce, moved to Johnstown, Colorado. Over the next seven years Wesley and Wanda added three more children to the family: Rodney, David, and Jana.
In 1955, Wesley started work as an electrician for The Great Western Sugar Company in Johnstown and remained there until it closed in 1978. He spent the next few years working for the Johnstown School District where he enjoyed being around children driving a school bus. Wesley then went to work as an electrician for the Monfort Meat Packing Company and when laid-off went to work as an electrician for the Greeley School District where he retired in the mid 1990’s.
In addition to being a loving, dedicated husband and father, Wesley was a devoted Christian and active worker in the Johnstown Assembly of God Church for more than 25-years. He served on the Church Board many of those years. He loved gospel quartet music and had a large record collection of the quartets he loved. He owned every Bill Gaither Homecoming tape and DVD published.
Wesley and Wanda moved from Johnstown to Greeley in 2000, where they were members of and faithfully attended Greeley First Assembly of God Church and enjoyed participating in their Senior Citizen’s group. They moved to Salem, Oregon, in 2009, and to Lincoln, Nebraska in 2011.
Wesley was preceded in death by his wife Wanda, his parents, six brothers and two sisters. He is survived by his four children and spouses: Royce and Carolyn of Oklahoma, Rodney and Joyce of Wisconsin, David and Pattie of Colorado, and Jana (Chapman) and Frank Sarvabui of Nebraska. Wesley leaves behind a legacy for eleven grandchildren: Shannon, Stacie, Jeremy, Brooke, Misty, Nichole, Laura, Lisa, Bethany, Andrea and Kelly; 20 great-grandchildren; and his sister and brother-in-law, Elsie and Robert Sutherland of Colorado.
Funeral services are scheduled for Monday, March 2, 2015 at 2 p.m.., at Stoddard Funeral Home, Greeley, CO. Interment will follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers a memorial fund has been established at Thrive City Church, 700 E Eldora Lane, Lincoln, NE 68505.
Please visit www.stoddardsunset.com to sign an online guestbook.
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