A native of Bessemer, Michigan, Margaret Holley Chapman grew up in Lake Linden and graduated from Calumet High School. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lawrence College in 1932 and went on to attend Michigan College of Mining and Technology, becoming the first female to receive a degree from the college. After receiving a B.S. in General Science in 1933, she also received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1934 and worked on a master's degree in 1934 and 1935. She worked in the Corrosion Lab for a time and was a junior serologist for the Michigan Department of Health, located at the college in 1937. Mrs. Chapman became a social case worker with the Maine Department of Health and Welfare in Caribou, Maine. In 1971 she became a trustee of the Michigan Tech Fund, the first woman to serve as a Fund Trustee, a position she held until her death in 1978.