Background
Campbell was born in Saint Mary"s, Pennsylvania, on August 26, 1919, the son of Nicholas J. Campbell and Claire Zimmerman of Monongahela, Pennsylvania.
Campbell was born in Saint Mary"s, Pennsylvania, on August 26, 1919, the son of Nicholas J. Campbell and Claire Zimmerman of Monongahela, Pennsylvania.
Princeton University.
He succeeded the Review Edward B. Bunn, Society of Jesus (Jesuit), as Georgetown’s president In 1957, Campbell received a doctorate in history from Princeton University.
He initially taught history at Loyola University Maryland until he joined Georgetown University as vice president in 1963.
Father Campbell held the post of executive vice president at Georgetown at the time of his appointment as President in 1964. Campbell, who was 45 years old when he became president, was one of the youngest presidents in Georgetown"s history.
He was also the first President of Georgetown University to hold a doctorate from a non-Catholic university, as he had received a Doctor of Philosophy from Princeton in 1957. During his tenure, Campbell created the university’s first Senate and reconstituted the Board of Directors, including lay as well as ecclesiastical members.
He also presided over the establishment of Georgetown’s first endowed chair in Pharmacology.
He has been credited with spearheading new student community service initiatives by Georgetown students throughout the District of Columbia. Campbell began a fundraising drive to raise $26 million beginning in 1966. The campaign money was needed to fund fellowships, scholarships, pay salaries, and build the new Georgetown University Law Center.
However, the drive raised just $15 million by 1968.
Campbell resigned in 1968 as heightened protests during the Vietnam War and a $1.5 million deficit in the university budget challenged Georgetown’s management team He intended to spend more time on his research and teaching schedule.
He returned to Washington District of Columbia in 1979, where he served as the director of the Woodstock Theological Center for four years.