Local WWII hero to receive special Memorial Day service
The Sowers Chapel will kick off the community’s observance of Memorial Day by honoring the life of local World War II hero and longtime postal worker Cpl. Joseph “Rod” Chapman.
Chapman, who served in the U.S. armed forces for the duration of America’s involvement in the war, will be honored with a special Memorial Day service on Sunday, May 25, at The Sowers Chapel in Buffalo Township. He is this year’s honoree at the chapel’s annual Memorial Day service, which honors a local veteran who has recently died.
According to Trish Lindsay, who organizes the event for the chapel, this is its 15th annual Memorial Day service.
“Every year it's a different person who has died and is a veteran. We memorialize him and honor him at the service,” Lindsay said. “We honor everyone who has served in all branches of the United States military and then we choose one to represent those past soldiers each year.”
Chapman died Dec. 4, 2022, at the age of 101. Shortly after his graduation from Freeport High School in 1939, he took a job at Allegheny Ludlum Steel in Brackenridge.
His career would have to be put on hold, however, as he was drafted into the armed forces shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
In late 1944, his company — Company A, 319th Infantry, 80th Infantry Division — was overrun and Chapman was taken as a prisoner of war. After nearly eight months, he and the rest of his company were liberated, just in time for the end of the war in Europe. For his efforts during the war, Chapman received the Purple Heart, the French Legion of Honor Award and the Bronze Star.
After the war, Chapman returned to Western Pennsylvania and took a job with the Freeport Post Office as a mail carrier. He would spent 35 years with the post office, eventually rising to chief clerk. He also spent two decades as an installer with Four Winds Carpeting.
In July 2023, eight months after Chapman’s passing, after a unanimous vote from the U.S. House of Representatives, the post office where he worked for 35 years was dedicated in his honor, officially renamed the “Corporal Joseph Rodney Chapman Post Office.”
Chapman is just the latest in a long line of veterans to be honored by The Sowers Chapel. Last year, the chapel honored Charles Early, another World War II veteran who died in February 2024 at the age of 102. The previous year, the honoree was Boyd E. Baker.
In 2022, the honoree was Frank Ekas, an Air Force pilot who flew 30 missions over Europe, and would go on to found the Saxon Golf Course in Clinton Township after the war ended.
“When we had the service for Mr. Baker, someone came to us afterward and said, ‘Why don't you do Mr. Chapman?’” Lindsay said. “So we followed the community lead and we're honoring Mr. Chapman. The stories of these hidden heroes in our community have been a revelation.”
