Roll Call Tribute

Published: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:14 AM CDT The Kaufman Herald Chappel Published: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:14 AM CDT Roy Jesse Chappell, Jr., passed into Heaven on June 21, 2010. He was born Jan. 24, 1919, to Roy Jesse Chappell and Neelie Nash Chappell of Kaufman, Texas. Roy J. grew up in Kaufman, graduating from Kaufman High School as the class valedictorian in the mid-term class of 1936. He attended Allen Academy in Bryan, Texas, and then Texas A&M College, where he graduated in 1941 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering. A lifelong died-in-the-wool Aggie, he was Captain of the Field Artillery Band in his senior year, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army upon graduation. The day after Roy J.'s graduation, he entered active duty in training assignments building up to World War II. In 1942, he shipped out of New York Harbor on the Queen Mary en route to England via Ireland and Scotland, ending in Chester, England, where he joined other Allied forces for the invasion of North Africa. While serving as a forward artillery reconnaissance officer in Oran, North Africa, he was captured on Jan. 26, 1943, by elements of the German African Corps under the command of General Erwin Rommel. For several months, he was reported as Missing In Action, leading to a memorial service in Kaufman before a War Department telegram broke the news that he was a prisoner of war of the German army. He was taken through Italy and Germany before being imprisoned in Oflag 64 in Schubin, Poland, for more than two years. Written accounts from fellow POWs and the documentary by Robert Galloway, Oflag 64, A POW Odyssey, suggest that no POW spent more time in solitary confinement for repeated escape attempts than did Roy J. His escape attempts by underground tunnel and through barbwire fences got him out of the camp on more than one occasion, but he was always recaptured and punished. Late in the war, the camp commandant gave orders that any escape attempts would be punished by death, and Roy J. and two other undeterred POWs were charged after a subsequent attempt, only to have their trial dismissed as the war began to turn against the German army. In 1945, with the Russian army advancing from the east, Roy J. and a handful of other POWs successfully escaped by hiding in a barn as the Germans were transferring the prisoners westward. He made his way by rail to Odessa, Russia, on the Black Sea, where he rejoined Allied forces and sailed back to America, arriving on April 9, 1945, at Camp Miles Standish in Boston, Massachusetts. By May 12th, he was saying 'I do' to Helen Ruth Moore in the First Baptist Church of Kemp, Texas. Their marriage was to last 65 years. Roy J. was employed by Gulf Oil Corporation (now Chevron), with multiple assignments in Texas and Oklahoma. He later worked in real estate development with Belin Development Company in Conroe and Elkins Lake, Texas, and with Buckner Benevolences in El Paso. Through all these years, he remained in the U. S. Army Reserves, ultimately attaining the rank of full Colonel. He was a Master Mason, a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, and a Noble of Arabia Shrine. He was a Rotarian for all of his adult life, and served with the Texas Aggie Band Association and Kaufman County Friends of the Library. For all his accomplishments, Roy J.'s greatest passion was focused on his faith and his family. He served as a Deacon in Baptist churches in each city where he and the family lived, a Sunday School teacher for many age groups, and the Lay Minister for the mission group from Memorial Drive Baptist Church in Houston, which began what is today Tallowood Baptist Church. He and Helen were blessed with seven children: Roy Jesse Chappell III (Jay) who died as an infant, Roy Jesse Chappell IV who passed away in 2002, William Garfield Chappell, Benjamin Russell Chappell, Carol Ann Chappell Ross, Nancy Helen Chappell Green, and Janis Lee Chappell Hales. He is also survived by eleven grandchildren (including Roy Jesse Chappell V) and seven great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. at the First Baptist Church, Kaufman, on Friday, June 25th. Persons desiring to make donations are encouraged to make them to The Visiting Nurse Association, 1440 West Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, Texas 75247. Copyright © 2010 - The Kaufman Herald

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