Bobbi Phelps Chapman will speak to us on her latest book, Darien Waters, which describes historical facts and dramatic details of the ‘40s, ‘50s and early ‘60s. In her narrative of growing up in Darien, she writes of wealth, secrets, schemes, and intrigue in our beautiful waterside town.
Bobbi graduated from Darien High School in 1961. She attended Pine Manor College and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. Bobbi became an international flight attendant in 1965, working flights to the Orient, Europe, and into Vietnam during the height of the war. On a vacation by herself, she became the only tourist (along with 560 business, media, and political men) locked up in the Cairo Hilton during the Israel/Egypt conflict in 1967, the Six-Day War. Stories of her airline adventures and experiences are detailed in Behind the Smile during the Glamour Years of Aviation.
Bobbi started the Angler’s Calendar and Catalog Company in 1975. Her company won Exporter of the Year in 1993 from the State of Idaho (small business category). With the publication of Flyfishing Always, she became an Arnold Gingrich writer recipient from Fly Fishers International. Sky Ranch, her book about living on a remote potato farm in Idaho, won a five-star award from Literary Titans and a first-place gold medal from Feathered Quill Book Reviews.
Besides her many awards, Bobbi was a 20-year member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and a nine-year Idaho board member for The Nature Conservancy.
When Bobbi retired and married Larry Chapman (Darien Class of 1959), she continued to write. They moved to Tennessee and the Authors Guild of Tennessee twice voted her president. Her website is www.booksbybobbi.com.
Arranged by Tom Igoe and Charles Salmans