Robert Emmons CAMPBELL

CAMPBELL, COX, PAULEY, RIEFE, MOTLEY, GRAHAM, ELLIOTT, MCNEELY, HO, OLSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/25/2013 at 13:36:57

June 8, 1918 --- January 20, 2013

EDINA, Minn. — Robert Emmons Campbell, 94, formerly of Mason City, Garner and Belmond, passed away peacefully on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, at his home in Edina, Minn. His widow is Mary Jane (Pauley) Cox Campbell, also formerly of Mason City and Belmond, now of Edina, Minn. Visitation for Robert E. Campbell will be held on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, from 5:00 — 7:00 p.m. at the Dugger Funeral Home, 111 Luick’s Lane South, in Belmond, Iowa. There will be no visitation the day of the service.

Memorial services for Robert E. Campbell will be held on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 at 2 p.m. at the United Church of Christ Congregational, on West Main Street, west of the Iowa River, in Belmond. Pastor Donna Buckman will officiate. A reception will be held after the memorial service at the church. Burial, attended by family, will take place in the Belmond Cemetery, prior to the memorial service.

Robert (Bob), the son of Harold L. and Esther E. (Riefe) Campbell, was born June 8, 1918 in Mason City. Bob grew up in Mason City where he attended school and spent many hours sailing, fishing and hunting on and near Clear Lake and north Iowa. Bob graduated from Mason City High School in 1936. After attending Mason City Junior College for a year, he transferred to Iowa State College in Ames, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering in 1940. While attending Iowa State, he became an active member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. After graduation, he took a job with DuPont Chemical Company as a chemical engineer, working in several facilities in the eastern and south central United States. During the war his work was critical to the war effort and defense industry, thus he was not allowed to enlist in the armed forces. While working for DuPont in Houston, Texas, Bob met Frances Lucile (Motley) Graham and they married in Mason City, on June 10, 1949. After 12 years with DuPont, Bob and Lucy decided to move their young family back to Bob’s hometown, Mason City. In 1955, he started working at Northwestern States Portland Cement Company in Mason City, working there 19 years, serving as the Plant Manager and Vice President of Operations for many of those years. Bob and Lucy raised three children, Carol, Bruce and Scott, who all graduated from Mason City High School. In 1969, he expanded his professional credentials by becoming a certified Professional Engineer licensed to practice in Iowa.

Bob left Mason City in 1974 to take a new position with Monarch Cement Company, Humboldt, Kansas, as Assistant to the President and Operations Manager. His final career move took him to Des Moines, in 1979, where he worked for the State of Iowa as an Environmental Program Supervisor in the Department of Environmental Quality for nearly six years. After working for 45 years, Bob retired in 1985 to Garner. Bob happened to attend his 45th class reunion at Iowa State University where he became reacquainted with Mary Jane (Pauley) Cox who also grew up in Mason City and graduated from Mason City High School as well as Iowa State University. They married on Dec. 4, 1985, maintaining a home in Belmond, until they moved in 2006 to Edina Park Plaza, a retirement community in Edina, Minn.

Bob Campbell served his community well. In Mason City, he served on the Mason City School Board and the boards of the United Way, Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement, and the Mason City Development Association. Professionally, he served on a variety of technical legislative or environmental committees with the Portland Cement Association, Iowa Engineering Society, Air Pollution Control Association and Iowa Manufacturing Association. He was a former Chairman of the Iowa Section of the American Society of Chemical Engineers and a member of the Engineering Department Advisory Council of Iowa State University. Other memberships included the First Methodist Church, Mason City, and later the United Church of Christ Congregational, Belmond, and Rotary Club in Mason City.

Notably, Bob was a 50-year member of the Boy Scouts of America. Service to the Boy Scouts included stints as a cubmaster, scoutmaster and committeeman, followed by service as President of the Winnebago Council and a member of the Four State Regional Council. Individual Scouting honors for Bob included the Scouters Key, Order of the Arrow, and Silver Beaver from the Winnebago Council and the Silver Antelope from the North Central Region. His sons are both Eagle Scouts and his daughter is a Curved Bar Girl Scout. Bob was also an active Iowa State University alumnus serving as President of the North Iowa Alumni Club. He inspired his three children to become Cyclones and all three graduated from Iowa State. Bob and Lucy were selected as Iowa State University’s Parents of the Year for 1971.

Bob was especially proud of the accomplishments of his children: Carol, Brigadier General, USAF (Retired); Bruce, a chemical engineering and petroleum industry computer modeling expert with worldwide clients; and Scott, golf course superintendent and avid hunter, sharing their successes with family and friends in many hearty conversations through the years. Bob’s hobbies included hunting and fishing, especially with his three children, well into his retirement years, and gardening.

Bob is survived by his wife, Mary Jane (Pauley) Cox Campbell, children, Carol Campbell Elliott and husband, Dave, of Gallatin Gateway, Mont.; Bruce E. Campbell of Livingston, Texas, and grandchildren Brian and Becky as well as great-grandchild Jack; Scott H. Campbell of Garner, and two grandchildren Kati and Jay; brother, Donald Campbell of Edmond, Okla., and numerous nephews. Also surviving are Mary Jane’s children and families: Lucinda McNeely, Robert and James Cox, Martha Ho, Mary Lu’s husband, Ronald Olson, and numerous grand-and-great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, his sister, Dorothy, sister-in-law, Bonnie, and his first wife, Lucy; also Mary Jane’s first husband, Luin, daughter, Mary Lu, and grand-daughter, Andrea.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the Campbell Family Scholarship at Mason City High School (Education Foundation of Mason City Public Schools — Campbell Family Scholarship, 1515 S. Pennsylvania, Mason City, Iowa 50401; the United Church of Christ Congregational, 116 West Main, Belmond, Iowa 50421; or the charity of their choice. Dugger Funeral Home, 111 Luick’s Lane South, Belmond, Iowa.

Mason City Globe Gazette - Iowa
January 25, 2013