Robert Chapman, an English professor who wrote a stage adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd but found his truest calling in teaching and directing, died last month at the age of 81.

He served as director of the Loeb Drama Center from 1960 to 1980, and taught in the English department from 1950 until he retired in 1989.

Chapman had lived in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., since retiring from teaching and directing.

In 1951, he tried his hand as a playwright, and with Louis O. Coxe he wrote the stage version of Herman Melville's Billy Budd.

The play debuted on Broadway in 1951 and won accolades from The New York Times, which called it "extraordinarily skillful." It was made into a movie in 1962.

But Chapman was most proud of his teaching and directing, according to Jonathan C. Miller '72, his former student who is now general manager of the American Repertory Theater.

"He saw himself as a man who studied the theater rather than one who wrote theater," Miller said.

Chapman was a popular lecturer and, according to Miller, had many undergraduate friends.