Robert Chapman, Barry-Wehmiller Chairman and Advocate of People-centric Leadership, Dies at 80

Robert (Bob) H. Chapman, who led St. Louis-based Barry-Wehmiller Cos. as CEO from 1975 until 2025, died Friday, the $3.6 billion manufacturing and services conglomerate announced March 20. He was 80.

Chapman, who continued to serve as chairman after handing the reins of the business to his son, took over the then-struggling company in 1975 upon the death of his father and transformed it from a $20 million supplier to the brewing industry to a global player with a portfolio that included packaging automation, life sciences technology and professional services.

What defined Chapman, however, was his commitment to people-centric leadership.

“Our message is really about caring. Caring for the phenomenal people we have the privilege of leading,” he told an IndustryWeek conference audience in 2016. “… All you have to do is care about your people. And ‘care’ is a profoundly meaningful word, just like ‘raising children.’ It doesn’t mean being nice. It means making sure that they’re safe, that they get a chance to discover their gifts, that they get a chance to be appreciated for their gifts and they share with you a vision so that they realize their potential.”

Chapman is a member of the IndustryWeek Manufacturing Hall of Fame and recipient of an IndustryWeek Industry Excellence Award.

In announcing his passing, the company wrote: “Beyond his business acumen, in the late 1990s into the 2000s, Bob underwent a personal transformation that changed his thinking from that of traditional ‘management’ to what would later be called Truly Human Leadership. He then spent the last 15 years of his life sharing the lessons of his transformation by writing prolifically and speaking to audiences around the world.”

Chapman was the author of “Everybody Matters, the Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family,” written with Raj Sisodia, co-founder of Conscious Capitalism. IndustryWeek shared an excerpt from the recently released 10th anniversary edition of this seminal manufacturing leadership book.

His company also embraced lean manufacturing, with Chapman tying it to his people-centric philosophy. “The power of lean is that we listen to people and let them help us make it better, and in the process we validate their worth and release their competencies,” he told an IW conference audience.

In 2013, Chapman and his wife launched the nonprofit Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, and in 2015 he founded Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute to take the principles of Truly Human Leadership to a wider audience.

Many people shared tributes to Chapman on social media and elsewhere. Of his legacy, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence wrote in part: “Bob’s life and leadership stand as a powerful reminder that business can be one of the greatest forces for good when people are placed at its center.” 

According to Barry-Wehmiller, “Bob once answered a question of what he would want his eulogy to say with: ‘He genuinely cared for the people whose lives he had the privilege of touching.’ He often said he would not go to his grave proud of the equipment built or services provided at Barry-Wehmiller but, instead, the people who built them.”