Colin G. Campbell (1936-2024)
Just received word that my college president, or rather, the person who was president during my time at Wesleyan, has passed away at the ripe old age of 88. I think all of us "Campbell Kids" have secretly been aware that this day would arrive someday. It was just that in our mind's eye, Colin would forever be the thirty-three year-old wunderkind who would take over the helm from his friend and mentor, the late Edwin D. Etherington (Class of 1948), that summer between our frosh and sophomore years.
It was a fresh start for all of us after a year of turmoil that garnered national headlines around the hard realities of being among the first elite colleges to implement an affirmative action admissions policy aimed at increasing the number of "negroes" on campus.
It was Colin's youth and stamina that would stand him in good stead for the next eighteen years as Wesleyan's president.
And, whether it was laughing good-naturedly at the barbs I tossed at her husband during a reunion celebration where they were the guests of honor or gunning her way past me when I inadvertently blocked her path to the bathroom at a memorial service repast for a previous first lady, his wife and life-partner, Nancy was unfailingly unflappable. It is for her that I most grieve.
Colin, I apologize for missing that appointment to meet you and President Etherington at our class tent in 1998. I apologize for not acknowledging the friendship I had with your late brother, the medical researcher, Dr. Robert Campbell, MD when I volunteered as an AIDS subject for one of his studies.
Um, I apologize for my lousy penmanship when inking a thank-you note for gracing our 25th reunion.
If there's anything else I can think of, I'll let you know when we meet in Heaven.
Yours truly, Ron.