Couple set their own pace

Tom and Dr. Cheryl Chapman are saying “aahhh” this weekend.

No racing to meetings, no patients to see, no buzzing cell phones.

That's unusual for this professional couple who have five children ages 8 and younger. Yet the question of how they make everything work elicits little more than a shrug and an exchanged bemused look.

At least life isn't boring, which was Cheryl's initial impression of Tom when they were Creighton University students and residence assistants in the same dorm.

Oh, sure, he was a great guy to make rounds with — tall, strong, reliable, dependable. And then there was that odd, idealistic streak.

“He had grandiose ideas. For example, after the October 1997 ice storm he wanted to plant trees all over campus the next April,” Cheryl says. “Everyone else was thinking of finals.”

Her impression changed during a holiday week when Cheryl, Tom and 60 foreign exchange students with rudimentary English skills were the only ones on campus. The two RAs sat at the receptionist desk, talked and played cards for hours. She discovered he was “actually fun.”

Tom graduated in 1998, Cheryl in 1999. They were married on July 15, 2000, and moved to Houston, where Tom had been working as an energy trader and lobbyist for Enron Corp., and where Cheryl would complete four years of school to become a doctor of optometry.

He was at Enron before and after it declared bankruptcy in 2001 after revelations of an intricate web of sham, off-the-book partnerships created to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Its name became synonymous with corporate fraud and corruption, and several senior executives are serving prison sentences.

Tom remembers the morning the house of cards came crashing down.

“We started the day with 200 to 300 people on the floor. At the end of the day there were 20.

“The scale of the oil, gas and electricity trading was breathtaking. We did $17 billion in business in just six months. It was stressful and hard, but not as hard as the bankruptcy and its aftermath. ... Something new would come out every day that you didn't understand.”

The perpetrators' wheeling and dealing generally was far removed from the day-to-day work of Tom and his colleagues.

“I didn't even know Andy Fastow and his group or what they were doing,” he said of the former chief financial officer now serving a six-year prison term. “I didn't see it coming or even knew it existed.”

But Tom Chapman the scholar appreciated the intellectual capital and energy that Enron possessed during its heyday.

“They really were ‘The Smartest Guys in the Room,'” he said, referring to the critically regarded book and documentary, “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” that examined the company's collapse.

“You could walk around the company and find the world's expert in so many fields, right there. I can't tell you how many times I'd walk into the room and not even understand what they were talking about.”

Of course, that didn't justify or compensate for the damage caused to the thousands of employees and their families. At one point, Enron employed more than 20,000 people.

Chapman's 401(k) took a hit, too, but he fortunately had exercised his stock options to buy a house, after Cheryl said his 600-square-foot apartment just wouldn't cut it for a married couple. So he exchanged what became worthless paper for something of concrete value.

The Chapmans returned to Nebraska in 2003, and three years ago moved into the house near 120th Street and West Center Road where his family had lived since he was 10.

This house and this life fit the Chapmans.

Being director of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce is an admission ticket to just about anything related to business and development, including the downtown baseball stadium.

“You can have an impact and be involved in anything,” Tom said.

After the stimulating but tightrope-walking environment at Enron, he appreciates the quiet industriousness of his co-workers.

“It would be hard for me to come up with a better cohort of people who desire to do good work.”

And being married to the owner of a small business provides insight to what motivates and challenges entrepreneurs. Cheryl purchased Gretna Vision Source, the town's only optometry office, from Dr. Steve Wolfe in August 2006.

Business milestones curiously seem to coincide with personal ones — she closed on the practice a few months after Martha's birth; she decided to, well, expand into an adjoining space while pregnant with Claire.

“You were calling the contractor in the birthing room,” Tom said.

“I don't think that's true,” Cheryl responded.

“Yes, you were. I remember,” he insisted.

Cheryl shrugged.

Vision Source is a national network of more than 2,000 practices independently owned and operated. It provides the latest information about equipment, treatment and technology to its members, Cheryl said.

“Sometimes you can feel isolated in the medical world. This is a way to get feedback and new ideas.”

Cheryl said she would someday like to expand to Omaha. For now, Gretna is a good place to be.

“It's a young practice, and there's room to grow. Health care is somewhat cushioned during a recession.

“People's eyes continue to change and to have illnesses.”

Optometry itself is a good field, said Cheryl, who has three full-time employees, including her brother, plus an associate doctor in the office.

“There's the right mix of well visits and medical care to make it interesting. The interaction with patients is satisfying.”

And there's a degree of flexibility, an important factor for a mother who doesn't want to miss Christmas programs or other important activities. James and Aidan attend Mary Our Queen School, and Denny goes to preschool. The Chapmans have a nanny who comes to the house.

Catholic education and being part of a parish community are important to the couple. Tom's father, Dennis, formerly general counsel and executive vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield, was active in Holy Name Catholic Church.

Tom's late mother, Karen, who died of cancer at age 58 in 2005, graduated from Cathedral High School and Duchesne College.

“When I went to (Creighton) Prep, people didn't know me but they knew my family,” Tom said.

“I couldn't take him anywhere” without someone recognizing him, Cheryl added.

“It helps to have successful siblings,” Tom said. “People give you the benefit of the doubt.”

His two brothers and three sisters include three who are graduates of or attending Houston's highly selective Rice University, a pediatric geneticist and a chemical engineer.

“I lowered the bar for everyone,” he said wryly.

Contact the writer:

444-1050, pat.waters@owh.com

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