Alvah H. Chapman Jr.: the corporate citizen

South Florida CEO, Oct, 2004 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

When Alvah H. Chapman Jr. calls, people pick up the phone. And usually they open their wallets, too. That is as true today as it was when he was CEO and chairman of The Miami Herald publisher Knight-Ridder. Fifteen years into his retirement, Chapman, who is 83 years old, limits his civic involvement to his work with the homelesss in South Florida. But even so, he remains one of the region's most influential--and certainly one of its most storied--corporate citizens.

It was Chapman, who fostered a sense of corporate community and responsibility in Miami-Dade County and, through personal charisma and sheer force of will, was able to rally area leaders to tackle important causes. He used his bully pulpit at The Miami Herald--then, as now, the area's most influential daily newspaper--to both withering and inspirational affect, and in the process became the archetypal leader for the region.

The mantle of prominent corporate citizen was hardly unfamiliar ground for Chapman. His father and grandfather both owned newspapers (the family owned R. W. Page Corp., based in Columbus, Ga.). Chapman's first job, at the age of 12, was as a newspaper carrier for Central Florida's The Bradenton Herald, where his father was the publisher. In high school, Chapman would play in Friday night football games, proofread the Sunday paper on Saturday afternoons and then head home for a few hours of sleep before returning to the office during the wee hours of Sunday morning to count out papers to the carriers. "I liked every part of the newspaper business," he says.

He attended college at the South Carolina military academy The Citadel. Martial discipline and early leadership opportunities provided at the school proved key in shaping Chapman's future. The Citadel, for instance, dictated everything from the number of minutes allocated to march to dinner to the strict three hours a night when homework could be done. "I learned how to concentrate and get it done fast, get it done thoroughly," Chapman says.

After graduation, he joined the US Army Air Corp, the precursor to today's modern Air Force, and flew B-17 bombing missions over Europe during World War II. He became a squadron commander. The times offered the young Chapman danger but also great opportunity for promotion. By age 23, he was commanding 1,500 men and 29 airplanes for the war effort. "Leadership was a part of my life from the very beginning," he says.

After the war, Chapman headed back to the family business. By then, his father had moved to Columbus to run the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper, and Chapman joined him. "I was ambitious, and I wanted to get ahead. I wanted to do things, and my dad felt I was being held back" by the family. So in 1953, Chapman accepted a job as the executive vice president and general manager of the St. Petersburg Times.

The Times gave Chapman a chance to try some new management ideas, such as profit sharing and measuring employee performance by objectives--practices common today. He left St. Petersburg four years later to be publisher and part owner of Savannah Newspapers.

When that chain was sold, in 1960, Chapman joined Knight Newspapers in Miami. At the time, Knight had four newspapers in five cities, and $60 million in revenue. "I wanted to pick my shots," Chapman says. "And the Knights had a good reputation."

After taking Knight public in 1969, Chapman felt the company needed to diversify out of the eastern US. In 1974, he approached Bernard H. Ridder Jr. about merging Knight with California-based Ridder Publications Inc. Ridder was facing his own troubles at that time, as his family feuded over who would lead once he retired. A merger with Knight would give Bernie Ridder an easier way to bow out. It took eight months to wrangle a deal that all the Ridder factions could swallow. Less than two years after the merger was completed, Chapman took over as CEO of Knight-Ridder.

The company gave the ambitious Chapman an even larger canvas to try out new management techniques and incentives: including offering stock options and having editorial and business staffers do stints in each other's departments.

"My mission in business was to run a successful company and make people feel good about working there," he says. "I had some experiences early in my life where I worked for a boss that I couldn't stand. He made my life miserable. I said I never want to be that way."

Under his leadership. Knight-Ridder experienced 23 percent revenue growth every year and won 37 Pulitzer Prizes. But Chapman says being listed in the book "100 Best Companies to Work For" was the best accomplishment.

Chapman was also driven to improve his adopted hometown of Miami. As he stepped up to the helm of what was, during the 1970s, one of South Florida's largest locally based corporations, he took an increasingly high-profile role in the community. For example, he led a $2 billion effort to revitalize downtown Miami.

"We got a billion dollars worth of construction going on in 10 years, and we thought that was great," he says. That effort was a precursor to today's downtown development boom. "What has surprised me most is the amount of building that has gone on in the last three or four years," Chapman says. "I'd hoped it would [happen] but I'm just pleased beyond all get-out that it looks this way."