CAMPBELL, CHARLES C. JR.

by Charles C. Campbell Jr.

Entry F61 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

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.