James B. Campbell ’44 died on July 18, 2014, in Irvington, Virginia.

(The following was provided by the Currie Funeral Home on July 18, 2014)

James B. Campbell ’44

James Boniface Campbell, 92, of Irvington died Friday, July 18, 2014. He was born April 10, 1922, at Ft. Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands, son of the late Maj. General Boniface and Dorothy Campbell.

Jim grew up in a variety of locales following his father’s career, and attended college at West Point; he graduated and was commissioned on June 6, 1944 – D-Day.

During WWII, Jim participated in two campaigns with the “Fighting 69th” Infantry Division in Central Europe and the Rhineland, culminating in a link up at Torgau on the Elbe River where they met the Russians. Jim received a Bronze Star with Valor for action near Leipzig.

Upon returning to the United States, Jim received a master’s degree in engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1950. He taught field artillery tactics and eventually moved to Mainz, Germany, as the Battalion Executive of the first Guided Missile battalion in Europe. He trained for the use of nuclear weapons and later taught physics at West Point. Jim later briefed President John F. Kennedy on plans to improve terminal air defense systems in the US during the Cuban missile crisis. Jim retired in 1964 as a lt. colonel and received the Legion of Merit.

After retirement, Jim worked for the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory and then as a government contractor before retiring for good in 1982 when he moved to Ft. Myers, FL, and then Deltaville, VA.

Jim remained active, playing tennis and serving as president of his neighborhood citizens association and stock club. He moved to RWC in 2003.

He is predeceased by his wife, Jeanne Walburg Campbell. Surviving are his two children, Kathleen Loun and James B. Campbell, Jr., and their spouses, Don and Debby (respectively); two sisters, Betty Colson and Dorothy “Pinky” Derr; two granddaughters, Elizabeth Loun and Becky Campbell; and three stepchildren and their families, Shannon and Whit Newton and their son, John, Bill Rowan and his sons Stuart and Bill Jr., and Pete and Debbie Rowan and their children Mary Page and Peter Jr.