Board

Byron Chapman

Byron Chapman

J. Byron Chapman was born in rural Logan County, Kentucky where his first five years of education was in a one-room schoolhouse. His young years were spent working on the farm with his grandfather. 
 
After graduation from high school, Chapman attended college at Western Kentucky University. In 1965, he wed his high school sweetheart, Freda. Chapman served in the United States Army where he was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with the 101st Airborne. 
 
He did a tour in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 with the 20th Engineering Brigade and received several awards and ribbons including two Meritorious Performance Awards. After returning from service in Vietnam, Chapman moved his family to Middletown where he received an engineering degree from Louisville Techni cal Institute. After working at several engineering firms and teaching at Louisville Technical Institute, he opened his own business. 
 
Today, Chapman Heating & Air Conditioning is one of the leading HVAC firms in Metro Louisville. Chapman served as a Middle town City Commissioner for 12 years prior to being elected to Mayor in 2001. Under his leadership, Middletown has experienced managed growth with businesses and residential developments. This growth has allowed the city to offer the citizens a 24 – hour police department keeping crime at a minimum. Middletown was also able to restore the Wetherby House – currently City Hall – in Wetherby Park which has expanded with a gazebo, walking path, pavilion and picnic tables at little cost to the city due to Chapman’s ability to seek out federal and state grants. 
 
Chapman’s volunteerism has allowed him to serve on numerous boards and commissions in the area and state where he is an active member with leadership roles with the Floyd’s Fork Land Use Committee, Jefferson County League of Cities, Kentucky League of Cities and the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency (KIPDA) Board of Directors, and Warrior Outdoor Recreation Therapy Board of Directors. 
 
As an Aircraft Commander in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Chapman flew missions for the U.S. Coast Guard Homeland Security. He has received several merit awards from both the Coast Guard and Homeland Security for his ongoing service. 
 
Chapman and his wife Freda enjoy spending time with their two children and six grandchildren, especially if it involves fishing and the outdoors where he can relax.

Byron Marlowe

From 2003 until 2009, Marlowe served with the Kentucky National Guard and U.S. Army. When his unit was deployed to Iraq in 2006, Marlowe was a member of a platoon that was selected for a special mission. In Iraq, he worked with a task force that was directly targeting Al Qaeda Iraq through human intelligence networks. He ran over 300 combat and clandestine missions with this task force.

In 2009, Marlowe worked as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he led process and efficiency improvement programs. From 2010 until 2017, Marlowe served as Program and Operations Director for the Life Adventure Center. Since beginning his work at Life Adventure Center, Marlowe has developed numerous programs that directly serve the needs of veterans.

In 2010, Marlowe hosted the first Operation Military Kids Family Camp at Life Adventure Center. In 2011, Marlowe partnered with the University of Kentucky to create the Military Teen Adventure Camp Program. This nationally acclaimed program serves recently deployed service members and their teenage children by taking them on 3-5 day high-adventure camps. The MTAC program model has been replicated in at least 10 other states and is now a part of the WORTH program.

In 2012, Marlowe created the Warrior Adventure Program, now WORTH, to help veterans with PTS heal from the physical and invisible wounds of war through hunting and fishing programs. In 2015, Marlowe established a second site in the country to host the Save A Warrior Program. 

Save A Warrior™ has changed countless lives through its “War Detox” program, which supports the healing from Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS). Save A Warrior specializes in connecting Active Duty Military, Returning Veterans, and First Responders experiencing psychological trauma with multiple empirically proven modalities. Marlowe developed a Trauma Program (PTS and MST) for Athena’s Sisters modeled after Save A Warrior. 

In 2016, Marlowe began hosting the Reboot Combat Recovery Program. Reboot is a faith-based program that focuses on a spiritual recovery from combat trauma. 

In 2017, Marlowe partnered with Team Red, White, and Blue to begin hosting equine therapy for veterans in KY. 

Marlowe received the 2015 Kentucky Veteran of the Year award for his work with returning veterans. He is an accomplished speaker and author on Post-Traumatic Stress, challenges affecting transitioning veterans, organizational development, team building, and philanthropy for the University of Kentucky, the Department of Defense, and other clients. He also provides leadership development trainings for executive and staff teams. Marlowe attended the University of Kentucky and was awarded a B.A. in Business Administration. 

In January 2010, Marlowe was a founding partner of Royalty Ridge LLC, a healthy food and beverage company that is the controlling shareholder of Baqua, Inc. Byron Marlowe became the COO of Baqua in March 2014. Since 2017, Marlowe has worked as an energy sector consultant with experience in pipeline and facilities engineering project management, environmental permitting, regulatory and environmental compliance, permit acquisition, and policy development. Marlowe has significant experience managing multiple $100M+ CAPEX Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 7c projects, from project initiation through post-construction monitoring.

Marlowe currently resides in Versailles, KY, with his wife and three children and is WORTH’s CEO and Founder.

Jeff Fraley

Fraley is a retired Engineer and Manager for a large electrical utility in central Kentucky. During his career, which culminated in his position as Plant Manager of a large power plant, he specialized in managing large groups of technically skilled workers, team building, developing and managing multimillion-dollar capital and maintenance budgets, and managing affairs with “fence-line” neighbors as well as the community in general.

In 2012, Fraley was involved in the grassroots beginning of what would eventually become the non-profit organization WORTH (Warrior Outdoor Recreation and Therapy). His primary contribution to the organization at the time was to seek and receive permission from his employer to base the primary hunting events on the utility’s property. He was also instrumental in fundraising and general organization of hunting events.

After retirement, Fraley continues to participate in the general planning of activities, as well as managing finances and event coordination.

As a military veteran and a lifelong outdoorsman, Fraley has taken great pride in helping to provide disabled veterans with these fellowship opportunities in activities he has enjoyed his entire life.

Fraley and his family currently reside near Nicholasville, Kentucky, and he is a member of WORTH’s Board of Directors.