From the union hall to the radio mic, the East Baltimore native says it all goes back to one lesson: turn the money around for the community. (RANDALLSTOWN – October 30, 2026) – Bishop Barry Chapman got his business plan before he ever had a business. It came from his grandmother, the Rev. Beatrice Burnham. If he ever made some money, she told him, he had to bring it back home. “You got to turn that money back around for the community,” Chapman recalled. “You got to lift the community up.” He has spent a lifetime doing just that, as a union leader, an entrepreneur, a radio voice and a political donor who puts his checkbook where his mouth is. The deal at 700 Rutland When his parents split, young Barry moved in with his grandmother in East Baltimore. She kept a house in the 700 block of Rutland Avenue and another near Baltimore and Chester streets, and he stayed between the two. All 19 of her grandchildren filled the pews at her church. He fondly recalls them being the very first members. On his first day she offered him a deal: go to church, go to school, clean your room, and do your chores. Then she asked if he accepted. “I said, absolutely,” Chapman said, laughing. “Where was I going to go? Ain’t like I could fend for myself.” He calls her “great.” She gave him the spiritual grounding he still carries. The rest of his raising came from the women around him: his grandmother, mother, aunts and cousins. They made sure he never thought of women as beneath him, but as equals and partners in whatever he built. “I had some strong African American women around me,” he said. “They made sure I was shaped.” A worker who spoke up Chapman came up through Edmondson High School and Harbor City Learning. He studied mass communications at Baltimore City Community College and earned a paralegal degree at the Community College of Baltimore County. He went on to earn a bachelor of arts in labor studies from the National Labor College at the George Meany Center. The classroom followed the work. Chapman spent years at the Rosewood Center, and his co-workers learned he would speak up when others wouldn’t. That led to years of leadership in AFSCME and membership in the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. Linda Dorsey-Walker, who nominated him for a Baltimore County Democratic labor award, put it simply: “a man of the people and about the people.” “That’s a long story” Ask Chapman what he owns and he laughs first. “Oh my goodness,” he said. “That’s a long story.” The short version: Bishop Barry Pest Control is licensed in Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Delaware. Bishop Barry Does Business runs Bishop Barry Demolition, the recording operation We the People, We Are Awake, and a line of Bishop Barry cologne and perfume. Clear Path to a New Beginning handles fingerprinting, federal and state background checks, and home detention.…