CAMPBELL, CHARLES C. JR.

Charles C. Campbell, Jr. (Chet) was born in Mullen on February 14, 1913, in the old Piester home just east of the Tribune building. He attended the original frame Mullen Grade School and Hooker County High School, graduating in 1930.

The family homes in Mullen were the Piester house, the parish house of St. Jo-seph's Episcopal Church when it was in the east part of town, and the two-storey house later owned by the Wadlows and then by the Leonard Eriksens.

As with most youngsters in the late 192Os and early 193Os, Chet worked part-time in the family store, the Sand Hills Commercial Co., while attnding high school. In 1931 he attended the University of Nebraska, and in 1932, Colorado A & M when the family moved to Ft. Collins. The depression put a pause in his college education that lasted twenty years.

Chet moved to Tacoma, Washington, with Charlie, Cleo, and Mike (see the Michael Campbell – Charles C. Campbell Families entry) in 1935, and on May 15, 1936, married Rowena Guild. They had one child, Charles Patrick, born October 21, 1937.

After a series of dead-end jos, passed a merit-system exam and was employed by the Washington State Employment Service in 1938. Starting as a junior interviewer in Tacoma, Chet was progressively promoted. By 1943, following the federalization of the Service by Executive Order in 1942, he was Field Supervisor in Seattle, in charge of interstate labor recruitment for defense industries in the state, including Army's Manhattan Engineer District nuclear-reactor project in Hanford.

In 1944, Chet enlisted in the Army and later that year was ordered back to the Hanford project asssistant labor-relations officer. In 1945 he went to officers candidate school for medical adminstrators. After being commissioned a second lieutenant, he was again assigned to the Manhattan project -first in Oak Ridge, then Chicago, and then in September 1945 to Los Alamos, New Mexico.

When the Manhattan Engineer District became the Atomic Energy commission in 1946, Chet accepted civilian employment with the new agency to get out of the Army. Between 1946 and 1973, when he retired, he progressed from Industrial Relations Branch Chief to Assistant Director, Personnel and Organization at Los Alamos and then at Albuquerque, where the AEC had moved its regional headquarters in 1951. In 1952 he became Assistant Manager of the AEC's plant in Rocky Flats, Colorado, then in 1957 went back to Albuquerque as Area Manager for Sandia Laboratories. In 1962, he returned to Los Alamos for five years as Area Manager, where he supervised the conversion of the community's land, housing, and commercial space to civilian ownership. In 1967 he moved back to Albuquerque for the last time, becoming Assistant Manager of the AEC's Albuquerque Operations Office.

While stationed at Rocky Flats, beginning in 1952, Chet resumed the education in-terrupted 20 years earlier. He graduated from the Business School of the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1956 with special honors; he was also elected to Beta Gamma Sigma and Beta Alpha Psi honorary fraterni-ties. He had joined Kappa Sigma social fraternity at Nebraska in 1931; he recently received his fifty-year certificate.

During his years in government service and for a decade after, Chet was active in civic affairs. He served on the board on New Mexico Easter Seals (1864-1978, emeritus since) and was state president for two years; on the national Easter Seals board from 1971 to 1981, he held all offices from Treasurer to President. He has been the New Mexico president of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Society for Public Ad-ministration. A member of Rotary for thirty years, Chet has served on the boards of both the Albuquerque and Los Alamos clubs.

Although a federal employee, Chet served on a number of boards and commissions for the State of New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque. For the state, the aim was to improve a merit system for personnel and to improve the organization of state govern-ment; for the city, to improve land-use planning as well as environment and health services. Chet's civic participation was recog-nized in 1970 by the New Mexico Distin-guished Public Service Award.

After retirement, Chet remained active as a volunteer until 1983, when failing eyesight precluded attendance at nighttime events. He served as an officer of state and local federal retirees' groups, helping to establish the first Senior Day Care Center in New Mexico, as well as on various boards for health services, hospice, and low-income dental care.

Separated from Rowena in 1974 and divorced in 1976, Chet married Garaldine Hackler Turney (Geri) on 9/23/1978. His son Charles Patrick had married Tamara Groen Wadsworth (11/2/1968) who had two chil-dren, Peter and Jill, by a previous marriage. Geri has one son, Kirk Robert, and one grandson, Trevor Kirk Turney. Geri has also been active in retirees' affairs. Earlier she was a founder of St. Mark's-on-the-Mesa Episco-pal Church and was active in the National Secretaries Association and the Pilot Club.

Chet has also traveled, visiting all 48 contiguous states, Alaska, hawaii, western Canada, Mexico, southern Europe, Morocco, the Marshall Islands and South pacific, and most of the West Indies.