[3] His father was the 4th Comptroller General of the United States[4] and his mother served as president of the board of governors for the Mansfield Training School.
[5] Campbell attended Cornell University, where he served as the chairman of the Orientation Executive Committee and on the Willard Straight Hall Board of Managers.
[7] Campbell worked at the American Stock Exchange prior to becoming the executive vice president and administrative vice-president of Wesleyan University in order to fulfill his lifelong interest in serving the public good.
In 1970, after Edwin Etherington left Wesleyan to make an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate as a Republican candidate from Connecticut, Campbell was elected as the university's thirteenth, and youngest, president.
[8] Campbell left Wesleyan on July 31, 1988, to join the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a nonprofit charitable organization.