Well-known around town, and a familiar face to members and staff, Fran Chapman, 85, is a dedicated exerciser and Wellness Center enthusiast, showing up faithfully in the early evening six days a week, going on 10 years.
“I usually take off on Sunday, unless there’s a big football game on Saturday—then I’ll switch my day off, and come in on Sunday instead.”
It wasn’t always this way. In 2002 during a routine physical, he casually mentioned to his doctor that he sometimes experienced tightness in his chest. One stress test later, he found himself on the way to Catholic Medical Center for heart bypass surgery. During his recovery he entered the Wellness Center’s Cardiac Rehabilitation program, which lasted for 12 weeks.
“I decided to become a member after the rehab program was done, and started coming three days a week. After what I went through, I needed something positive to suggest ‘all is not over.’ Before my surgery, I never exercised.”
Fran begins his exercise routine as soon as he gets out of his car, using trekking poles on his way through the lobby and onto the fitness floor. “The poles help me to step it up, to make an effort to ‘move it.’ I try to do it aggressively, and it helps me balance.”
He starts out on the Expresso bike, riding for 30 minutes, then switches to the rowing machine for 25 minutes, does a few abdominal exercises, and finishes with 4 or 5 laps walking around the track with his poles, concentrating on moving as fast as he can, which “helps loosen up the muscles in my legs.”
“It takes me an hour and 10 minutes and it goes by fast. It’s a routine. It’s ‘I will’, not ‘maybe I will, maybe I won’t.’ Exercising six days is no problem for me.”
“I love the bike with video and I started rowing when a staff member told me, ‘That’s the machine to use.’ Rowing gives you a chance to think. Nothing to do, nothing to see, no noise—it’s meditation time. I write a lot of letters in my mind while I’m on the rowing machine. I think about letters for days before I write them down.”
Fran, who is locally famous for his letters to the editor on topics ranging from town politics to school issues to world events loves it when acquaintances seek him out to comment on his writing. In fact, the social aspect of the Bond Wellness Center is an important motivator for him.
“Everyone knows me here and says hello. You used to go to the dump to talk politics. Now you go to the Wellness Center!”
“The other thing that happens is you see people on a regular basis, and when you don’t, you get worried, and ask the staff if they’ve seen them. You don’t know if they’re sick or on vacation, so you try to find out. I’ll call them up, to see if they’re ok. Everyone here cares.”
He also has high praise for the staff. “They’re a very definite asset–the key to the place. They set the tone, they encourage you to do better, but they don’t intrude. They’re there when you need them. They’re welcoming and responsive.”
Fran, who has yet to retire, has been a real estate appraiser for nearly 40 years and in his travels around the state has discovered what he thinks is the key to success in sticking to an exercise routine. “I’ve been in many, many houses, and have seen beautiful exercise equipment just gathering dust. You can’t persist in a lonely situation, in a void, trying to do what’s good for you. It’s the whole package here, because you start coming for the exercise, but you end up staying for other reasons. You don’t plan it that way, it just happens. I haven’t seen many who try it and don’t like it or stick with it. The extremes are here for all to see. Some go so fast you can’t believe it, you just have to admire them. And then there are the old guys like me. It’s vibrant. It’s almost like a club.”
Fran has a degree in agriculture from the University of Maryland and is a dairyman at heart. After running a large dairy farm in Maryland and an ice cream factory in Ohio, he moved to Peterborough with his wife, Mary, and six children in 1965, to be the executive director of the Guernsey Cattle Club. Later, Fran worked for a short time in Kentucky, studying for his real estate license as he flew back and forth. Not long after, he and a partner founded Our Town Realty and eventually Fran started Chapman Appraisal Company. He is also an active, long-time member of the Lion’s Club, a former Rotarian, and member of the School Board and Knights of Columbus. He is an inveterate presence at select board, school board, and budget hearings, as well as town meetings. Fran also has a powerful, beautiful bass voice and loves to sing. For many years he participated in a traveling all-male chorus known as the Barnstormers, and also sings in his church choir.
In addition to the social aspects of the Wellness Center, Fran extols the obvious physical benefits. “Exercise really helps. I’ve lost 18 pounds in the last year, and I want to lose 10 more. I’ve got to give medicine credit, but my cholesterol is great, my blood pressure is at a kid’s level, and I don’t have any joint problems. I feel good. We’re blessed to have this.”
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Loved this contribution! Really captures MY DAD !!!
I am also an avid fan of the wellness center and go daily whenever I am in town visiting!
Awesome! That’s an impressive workout! Go, Fran, go!