Biography: Christian Chambers

Biography: Christian Chambers

Christian Chambers was born May 23, 1977, five weeks premature at Baptist East Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the only child of Robert "Big Bobby" Chambers and Louise Chambers, an older Oxford couple who made their fortune in North Mississippi's booming upholstered furniture industry.

Christian got a late start in school when his mother persuaded the public school principal that Christian's health was still too delicate to face the larger, more boisterous children in the first grade. He was held back a year for private kindergarten classes.

Christian and Dale Taylor's friendship began in the first grade, the two were inseparable for years with Christian calling his buddy for long, late-night conversations. The two of them were often seen around town, at the movies and at athletic events together. In high school, Christian earned honors in science, English and the band, where he played second-chair clarinet for three years. Christian's friendship with Dale turned toward helping Dale through high school, grinding out quick term papers to help his friend when Dale's skating career took him to Memphis for weeks at a time after the seventh grade. Christian exhibited a reluctance to socialize that hadn't been evident in his earlier years. Though it did not affect his school performance, he developed a quiet drinking problem and often had alcohol on his breath and a couple of bottles stashed in his car on weekends. He began attending AA meetings in his senior year and is now a teetotaler.

Christian is a soft touch, known for being the kind of friend who remembers birthdays with cards and presents, loans $20 or the use of his Visa when needed, and occasionally hands over the keys to his beloved Beamer to friends for several days' loan.

Now enrolled at the University of Mississippi, Christian is majoring in computer science with a minor in English lit. He lives at 17 Virginia Street, a luxury condo that Chambers' parents bought just before his freshman year at Ole Miss. The apartment looks more sophisticated than most college boy's digs, and the pickled oak-paneled walls are decorated with framed art prints and theater posters. Christian's apartment has a reputation for it's less than clean standards. Friends attribute his lack of concern to a life of maids and joke about his silver spoon. Christian's point of view is best expressed by a framed quote on his livingroom wall from Quentin Crisp: "There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years, the dust doesn't get any worse; it's simply a question of not losing your nerve."

Christian does, however, take pride in his expensive car, a sleek pearly gray BMW convertible, which he carefully hand-washes and waxes every Saturday. He still doesn't socialize much around town, preferring to cook for friends at his condo and staying up late in Internet chat rooms. He gets plenty of e-mail from distant friends, including Terrance Kershaw, a California friend and Zen devotee. Years of country-clubbing with his parents also have polished Christian's golf skills. He keeps in shape and gets plenty of fresh air and exercise as a member of the Ole Miss Golf Team.

Christian dresses well, keeping a large running tab at Neilson's department store in Oxford.. He is musically talented and took private piano lessons for five years; today he still enjoys playing a keyboard at home and sometimes fills in background at a local recording studio and doing some keyboard gigs. He works summers at his father's furniture factory and also uses those skills year-round to make the occasional dollar refinishing antique furniture and reupholstering other items.

He's described by college friends and co-workers as a quiet, intense, observant and thoughtful young man who keeps to himself.