Richard H. Campbell, Jr., 97, of Gilford, New Hampshire, died peacefully on Tuesday, February 27, 2018, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The son of Richard H. and Anne (Staples) Campbell, Dick was born on May 11, 1920 in Yonkers, New York. Within weeks, the family moved to Portland, Maine , and in 1922 to Fitchburg , Massachusetts .
Dick attended public schools in Fitchburg through seventh grade, then Lenox School in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while at Harvard he received ROTC training. Upon his graduation in June of 1942, he was commissioned 2nd lieutenant and immediately ordered to active duty. Dick served in the army for four years; all state-side except for a short stint in Panama. The last part of his service was as a cryptographic equipment engineer. Released from active duty in the spring of 1946, he enrolled in graduate school at McGill University, Montreal , and in 1948 received the Master of Engineering degree.
After graduating from McGill, Dick rode his bicycle from Montreal to his parents recently acquired retirement home, a former farm in Westminster West, Vermont. He had spent the summers of 1946 and 1947 with his brother John, working on improvements at the farm. It was there that he met his wife-to-be, Nancy Palmer, whose family vacationed in the vicinity. Wanting to stay near his family in southern Vermont, Dick took an engineering job with the Minshall Organ Company in Brattleboro. He and Nancy were married in 1952.
By early 1955, Dick and several others left Minshall and established the Brattleboro Organ Development Group, with the intent of designing a new type of electronic organ. They set up shop and built a prototype. After several frustrating attempts at marketing the product, they were contacted by Earle Kinsman of Laconia who had just established the Kinsman Manufacturing Company and was seeking a new product. The result was that the group was absorbed into the Kinsman Company and moved to Laconia . He served there as design engineer and, after the departure of George Hadden, as chief engineer. In 1960, Dick, Nancy, and 5 year old Molly, moved into their newly acquired home, the Sibley Place (built in 1790) in Gilford, where he lived until 2017.
The Kinsman Company was bought out by Seaburg who, in 1966, closed the Laconia plant and moved the operation to Chicago. Deeply ensconced in Gilford, Dick set up his own business as a consulting engineer, working in several areas, including electronic controls for machine tools. One of his clients was Bill Wilkens, who was in the process of establishing Wilcom Products, Inc., a manufacturer of test equipment for the telephone industry. In 1972, Mr. Wilkens persuaded him to become a full-time employee and head the Wilcom engineering department, a position he held until retiring in 1985.
Prior to his retirement, Dick had already begun to serve his local community: he served 15 years on the Gilford Budget Committee, six as chairman, and 11 years on the Gilford Zoning Board of Adjustment, six as chairman. In 1984 he was elected to the New Hampshire General Court (legislature), the first of his five two-year terms. In his first three terms he was assigned to the Executive Departments and Administration Committee, working largely on matters relating to the State retirement system. When a Senate bill added one senator and one representative to the Retirement System board of trustees, he was appointed as the first House member on the board. On his fourth term he served on the Judiciary Committee, and on his fifth on the Corrections and Criminal Justice Committee. Aside from committee work, he played an active part in a comprehensive re-draft of the state's Municipal Budget Law (RSA 32) that became effective in 1993. After leaving the legislature, Dick served four more years on the Gilford Budget Committee.
Dick’s father planted the seeds for a lifelong love of the outdoors. Dick loved tending to his 11-acre, conservation-trust-protected, property on Belknap Mountain Road. He, Nancy, and Molly, enjoyed year-round hiking in the White Mountains, canoeing the many rivers and lakes of New Hampshire, and sailing the “Molly C” on Lake Winnipesaukee and elsewhere. Dick celebrated his 90th birthday by climbing Mount Stinson, in Plymouth, and continued to enjoy local walks well into his nineties.
Dick is survived by his daughter, Molly Campbell of Cambridge, Massachusetts; sister, Joanna C. Crocker of Westminster West, Vermont; and numerous nieces, nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews. He was predeceased by his wife, Nancy P. Campbell, and his brother John P. Campbell of Williamstown, Massachusetts.
A memorial service will be held at Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home, on Thursday, March 8, 2018 at 2:30 pm.
For those who wish the family suggest memorial donations in Dick’s name be made to the Society for Protection of the New Hampshire Forest 54 Portsmouth Street Concord, NH 03301
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 164 Pleasant Street , Laconia NH is assisting the family with the arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial go to www.wilkinsonbeane.com.