MSJE gets major gift to name the Chapman Family Research Center

Amy Chapman Fulton and Dave Fulton

In November, the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans cut the ribbon to open a major expansion. Now, that expansion has a new name, thanks to a major gift.

The naming is the result of a $1.25 million gift from Dave and Amy Chapman Fulton, and honors Amy Chapman’s Southern Jewish ancestors.

The Chapman Family Research Center is located on the museum’s third floor and is a center to give scholars, historians, and people seeking to research their Southern Jewish roots a new home for exploration and discovery.

The center includes spaces devoted to artifact conservation and digitization, a secure vault to hold the museum’s growing archival collection, an oral history and distance learning studio, and a reading room and reference library, where center staff have already begun offering genealogy and artifact preservation workshops.

“While I was mostly inspired by my dad for his love of family and passion for tracing our family tree,” she said, “our gift is meant to honor the entire Chapman family – my Bubby (Mollie) and Zadie (Nathan), who immigrated from Russia in the early 1900s, and my dad (Norman) and his four brothers (Jake, Harold, Milton, and Julius) who all grew up in Shreveport, La. My cousins and I would not be the people we are today without the example they set with their love of family and close ties to Judaism.”

“Since we opened in 2021, countless people have asked us to help them learn more about their Southern Jewish history,” said Museum Executive Director Kenneth Hoffman. “The Chapman Family Research Center is now an important part of the Museum’s mission to expand their understanding of what it can mean to be a Southerner, a Southern Jew, and ultimately, an American.”

Along with the gift from the Fultons, the museum received financial support from people across the South, particularly the leadership giving of the Perlin Family Foundation, of Fairfax Station, Va., the Ben May Charitable Trust, of Mobile, Joanne B. Fried, of Metairie, and Dr. Ivan Sherman, of New Orleans.

The Museum will host a naming ceremony recognizing the Fultons and their support for the Chapman Family Research Center at a date to be announced.

Databases and Music

Photo of Chapman Family, c.1935: front row: Norman and Julius; second row: Harold, Mollie (Bubby), Zadie (Nathan), and Milton; top row: Jake

Dave Fulton, a native of Eugene, Oregon, received his Ph.D. in mathematical statistics from the University of Connecticut, in 1970. During his academic career, he performed professionally with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. He then founded the Department of Computer Science at Bowling Green State University, serving as its professor and chairman for 10 years. While there, he co-founded Fox Software, which became internationally known for its database management application, FoxPro. Following the sale of Fox Software to Microsoft in 1992, Dave served as Microsoft’s Vice President for Database Products until his retirement in 1994.

Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Amy graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1979 with a degree in computer science, and took a job at Dacor, Dave’s software consulting firm, where she worked several years developing database software.

While she worked there, Amy and Dave married and she would bring their children to the office. When Microsoft purchased Fox, she continued as a software engineer. They retired in 1994.

After retiring, they assembled one of the world’s premier collections of stringed instruments, and Dave has played string quartets with three Seattle Symphony members weekly for 16 years. As part of the collecting process, they became friends with many leading violinists, including Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman and James Ehnes.

With Amy’s help, he also produced documentary films, including “Homage” and “Violin Masters: Two Gentlemen of Cremona.”

In 2018, they donated their instrument collection to the David and Amy Fulton Foundation, which uses proceeds from their sale to help numerous charitable organizations, with an emphasis on musical causes, medical research and Jewish organizations.