Samuel James Campbell (June 18, 1892 in Mount Carroll – September 3, 1981 in

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

) was a prominent banker, businessman and civic leader in

Mount Carroll, Illinois Mount Carroll is a city in and the county seat of Carroll County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,479 at the 2020 census. History Mount Carroll began life as a mill town around 1841. In 1843, a referendum moved the county seat fro ...

, in the first half of the 20th century. He operated several farms that raised Angus cattle and owned the Kable News Company of Mount Morris, Illinois, a national distributor of magazines. He headed the boards of trustees of

Shimer College Shimer Great Books School ( ) is a Classic_book#University_programs, Great Books college that is part of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Prior to 2017, Shimer was an independent, accredited college on the south side of Chicago, or ...

for more than 20 years, and was also chairman of the board at

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1846 when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It has an enrollment of roughly 1,000 undergradua ...

. Campbell's Mount Carroll residence, built in 1925 when he was the vice president of the Carroll County State Bank, is now part of the Mount Carroll Historic District. It was designed by architect Carroll A. Klein.

Early life and education

Campbell received a certificate in music from

in 1909; although it was then almost exclusively a girls' preparatory school, Shimer allowed occasional male day students. Campbell subsequently studied at

through 1913, and received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in economics from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1914. On October 10 of the same year, he married fellow Stanford graduate Ileen Bullis.

Career and civic life

Campbell's "Kable News Co." was listed as distributor of thirty three comic titles during the

United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established by the United States Senate in 1953 to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency. Background The subcommittee was a unit of the United States Senate Judiciary Co ...

's investigation into a possible connection between comic books and juvenile delinquency. Campbell was a friend of Holman Pettibone of Chicago, a member of the Eisenhower administration. In 1955 Pettibone arranged to have Campbell invited to a stag dinner at the White House where he met President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

. He was invited again in 1957 for a dinner (indefinitely postponed) to be given in honor of President

René Coty Gustave Jules René Coty (; 20 March 188222 November 1962) was President of France from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president of the Fourth French Republic. Early life and politics René Coty was born in Le Havre and studied at th ...

of France. Eisenhower, who also had an interest in Angus cattle and who kept two herds at his farm in Gettysburg (now the

Eisenhower National Historic Site Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves the home and farm of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, and its surrounding property of . It is primarily located in Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, Cumber ...

), kept in contact with Campbell for the rest of the administration. Campbell was a long-time member of the boards of trustees of both his hometown alma mater

and nearby

. His service on the Shimer College board began in 1924, and he held the chairmanship for more than 20 years, from 1935 to 1956. At Beloit, he joined the board in 1938 and chaired it from 1958 to 1963. He also served as an advisor to the University of Arizona after taking up residence there later in life. A "Samuel J. Campbell Plaza" was dedicated at Beloit College in 1976. The Department of Economics at Beloit is also named after him.

References

External links

Papers of Samuel J. Campbell, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential LibraryBeloit College Archives: Samuel James Campbell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Samuel James 20th-century American businesspeople People from Mount Carroll, Illinois Shimer College alumni Beloit College alumni Stanford University alumni 1892 births 1981 deaths