Prince Lucien Campbell

Prince Lucien Campbell

Portrait of President Campbell from Oregana, 1922 University of Oregon yearbook

Portrait of President Campbell from Oregana, 1922 yearbook of University of Oregon
Born October 6, 1861
Newmarket, Missouri
Died August 24, 1925(1925-08-24) (aged 63)
Eugene, Oregon
Occupation University administrator
Title President
Academic background
Alma mater Harvard College
Academic work
Discipline Classics

Prince Lucien Campbell (1861–1925) was an American academic who served as the fourth president of the University of Oregon from 1902–1925. He had been president of the Oregon State Normal School in Monmouth, Oregon, a precursor of Western Oregon University, from 1890–1902. He was educated at Christian College in Monmouth, and at Harvard College, graduating in 1886. As president of the University of Oregon, he led expansion of financial and physical resources, increased student enrollment, and developed the university's curricular offerings by establishing multiple new departments and programs.

Early life and education

Prince Lucien Campbell was born Oct. 6, 1861, in Newmarket, Missouri, of Scottish ancestry. He was the son of Thomas Franklin Campbell and Jane Eliza Campbell. His father Rev. Campbell was a minister of the Christian Church in Oregon and California, and from 1870–1879 was president of Christian College in Monmouth, Oregon. Prince Lucien Campbell enrolled there, and at age 18 had graduated from Christian College. He taught school for three years before entering Harvard as a sophomore.[1] After his junior year he worked as a reporter for 14 months at the Kansas City Star. He returned to Harvard, earning an A. B. degree in 1886.[1]

In 1887 Campbell married Eugenia Zieber, who died in 1891.[1] They had two children, Herbert Morris, who died in infancy, and Lucia Eugenia. Campbell married Susan Alexandra (Church) Campbell in 1908, eponym of UO's Susan Campbell Hall.[2] Susan's son Walter Church was among the first graduates in 1917 of UO's School of Architecture and Allied Arts, and supervisor of the construction of the capitol building in Salem.[3][4]

Career

After graduating from Harvard, Prince Lucien Campbell returned to Monmouth in 1886. He became a professor of classics for three years at the former Christian College,[2] which in 1882 had been designated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly as Oregon State Normal School (OSNS).[5]

Campbell was an organizer and director of Polk County Bank in Monmouth. In 1890 he became the bank's vice president and manager.[1]

In 1890 Prince Lucien Campbell became president of OSNS, the same institution his father had served as president when it was Christian College, that is now Western Oregon University.[1][5] His task at OSNS was to encourage "the conservative faculty of Christian College to accept the new ideas developed by the normal school leadership."[2]

In 1902 he was elected the fourth president of the University of Oregon, where he served until his death in 1925.[6] Campbell is credited with leadership in securing financial resources and building new facilities, as well as expanding the curriculum of the University of Oregon.[6] He secured state funding through a state property millage tax, a percentage of property taxes dedicated to the university, and through a gift campaign program of private contributions.[7] During his presidency the university's annual budget increased from USD $47,500 to USD $966,000, and enrollment increased from 250 students to 3,000 students.[6]

One key hire was Ellis F. Lawrence, founder of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, who designed many buildings on campus.[8] Over Campbell's 23-year tenure, he led efforts establishing the schools of music, education, journalism, architecture and allied arts, business administration, sociology, and physical education.[2]

Honors and tributes

Both Pacific University and the University of Colorado awarded Campbell honorary doctorates.[2]

Campbell was "noted for his devotion to building esprit-de-corps within the university", and for treating all faculty with equal respect, regardless of rank.[9]

Upon his death, Governor Walter M. Pierce commented, "He was a hard student, a clear thinker, and always displayed a wonderful degree of tact in dealing with people of all classes."[10]

The day following his death on August 24, 1925, the Eugene Guard carried an editorial page tribute to Campbell, which said in part:

He was unusual... Nature had given him the combination of a great intellectuality, a marvelous magnetic personality, a tireless energy, and withall a quality of personal humility and sef-immolation as rare as it is splendid... He believed in the rising generation as the hope of the land, and his faith in that generation never faltered... His whole active life was spent in the advancement of education, culture, and progress in Oregon.[11]

The oldest public building in Oregon, Campbell Hall on the campus of Western Oregon University, was formally named in 1936 in honor of its second and fourth presidents, Rev. Thomas Franklin Campbell and his son Prince Lucien Campbell.[12][13] Prince Lucien Campbell Hall (abbreviated "PLC") is the only high-rise University of Oregon building, the tallest on campus.[14]

See also

Presidents of the University of Oregon

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rev. H.K. Hines (1893). "An Illustrated history of the state of Oregon". Lewis Pub. Co. Retrieved April 8, 2016 – via genealogy trails.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 John F. Ohles, ed. (1978). Biographical Dictionary of American Educators. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 234. ISBN 9780313040122. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  3. ↑ "U.S. School Yearbooks - Prince Lucien Campbell". Retrieved April 8, 2016 – via ancestry.com. (subscription required (help)).
  4. ↑ "Walter Church, '17". 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  5. 1 2 "History of Western Oregon University". Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 "Office of the President: Prince Lucien Campbell records, UA 001.004". Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  7. ↑ "The University of Oregon and the Cemetery" (PDF). Eugene Masonic Cemetery. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Presidential History". Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Past presidents at the U of O - Prince Lucien Campbell". Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  10. ↑ Harvard College - The fiftieth anniversry of the Class of '86 and the three hundredth of the college, Class Secretary's Report. Anchor Linotype Printing Company, Boston, Massachusetts. 1936. Retrieved April 10, 2016 – via Ancestry.com. (subscription required (help)).
  11. ↑ "Prince Lucian Campbell". Guard (Eugene). August 15, 1925. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  12. ↑ "2011 - Campbell Hall". 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  13. ↑ "150 years of presidents". 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Emporis - Prince Lucien Campbell Hall". 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
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