W. Glenn Campbell

About

W. Glenn Campbell, who was director of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, for 30 years, died November 24, 2001, at the age of 77. In addition to his responsibilities as director, he advised U.S. presidents and was a member of the University of California Regents for 28 years.

Campbell was appointed as the Hoover Institution’s director in 1960 at the recommendation of Herbert Hoover on the advice of Ray Moley, an adviser to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Under Campbell, who worked with founder Herbert Hoover until Hoover’s death in 1964, the Institution realized significant accomplishments, evolving from a well-known library and archives to an internationally renowned public policy research center that focused on American principles of individual, economic, and political freedom, private enterprise, and representative government.

Under Campbell’s leadership, a component of public policy scholars joined archival researchers at the Institution, the Institution’s collections and library grew, and the endowment flourished. Also during his tenure as director, two buildings at the Institution were built and dedicated: the Lou Henry Hoover Building (1967) and the Herbert Hoover Memorial Building (1978).

On his retirement in 1989, Campbell was appointed counselor to the director; in 1994, he was named director emeritus.

Before joining the Hoover Institution, Campbell had been research director at the American Enterprise Association and before that an economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a teaching fellow and, later, instructor.

During the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford presidencies, Campbell was a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellows. In 1972, he was appointed to be a member of the National Science Board; he served a second term from 1990 to 1994.

When President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, Campbell was appointed chairman of the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board and a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He served on both boards until 1990.

He was a senior adviser in Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign.

In 1968, Campbell was appointed to a 16-year term as a regent of the University of California and was appointed to a second term in 1984. He served as chairman of the Board of Regents in 1982–83.

From 1983 to 1989, he was chairman of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission.

In 1997, the Institution’s National, Public Affairs, and Peace Fellows Program was named after W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell. The Campbells established the Uncommon Book Award to recognize outstanding authors with ties to the Hoover Institution.

His memoir, The Competition of Ideas: How My Colleagues and I Built the Hoover Institution, was published in 2000.

Campbell was born April 29, 1924, in Komoka, Lobo Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in London in 1944 with honors in economics and political science and went on to Harvard.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Rita Ricardo-Campbell, and three daughters, Barbara Gray, Diane Campbell, and Nancy Yaeger, three grandsons, and one granddaughter.

The funeral service was held November 29 in Los Altos; a memorial service was conducted December 11 at Stanford University’s Memorial Church.

The family requested that contributions be made to the MS Awareness Foundation, Attention: Phyllis Stewart, P.O. Box 1193, Venice, FL 34284 (888-336-6723) or to the charity of the donor’s choice.

(2002)