Rudy Campbell, former Arizona regent, dies
Prominent public servant in Tempe passes away at age of 96
Rudy Campbell, a former member of the Arizona Board of Regents and prominent public servant in Tempe, died Monday. He was 96.
Campbell was diagnosed with cancer last week, but his daughter, Deborah Austin, said the family did not pursue a biopsy to determine the type. She also said he had dementia.
“Through his tireless work ethic, Regent Campbell made our universities better places for our students and our state,” Arizona Board of Regents Chairman Larry Penley said in a statement.
Campbell, who served two terms on the Board of Regents, from 1974 to 1982 and from 1992 to 2000, was described by Penley as a “dedicated and tireless public servant.”
Growing up in difficult times
“His life story is one of perseverance and hard work from his early days when his family came to Arizona from Oklahoma in 1935 as migrant farm workers,” Penley said.
In a profile published in The Arizona Republic in 1997, Campbell said, “When I was 12 years old, I came to Mesa, poor white trash out of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the Depression. My family came here picking cotton, chopping cotton. We roamed the whole Southwest.”
Unlike many young boys during the Great Depression, his parents kept him in school until he graduated high school.
“I went to three different schools every year because we would move around so much. My mother would insist I go to school, but I had to go to school and enroll myself,” Campbell said. “My mother and dad wouldn’t come to the school with me. They felt uncomfortable because they had no education.”
At 18, his mother, father and sister were killed when a train hit their car, leaving Campbell to raise his 5year-old brother.
Not long after the death of his family members, Campbell married his wife, Greta. The two of them raised his younger brother, according to an autobiography titled “My Four Worlds.” Greta died in June; the couple were married 76 years.
Campbell served in the Navy from January to December 1945, according to his autobiography.
The early hardships in his life shaped him into a hard and dedicated worker, said Austin, his daughter.
After the Navy, Campbell returned to Mesa; he and Greta later settled in Tempe. In his professional life, Campbell was a banker for 14 years and then went into the insurance industry until retirement in 2000.
Commitment to community
Campbell also was known for his work ethic and passion to give back to the community.
He had many leadership roles in the Tempe community, including with the Tempe City Council, Tempe Diablos and Tempe Chamber of Commerce. He also served on the state highway commission.
He was elected to the Tempe City Council in 1956 at age 33. From 1966 to 1968 he served as Tempe’s first directly elected mayor after the City Charter was approved.
“I was the first King of Oktoberfest in Tempe,” Campbell said wryly in the 1997 profile, when he was 74. “At my age, you’re the first in a lot of things.”
Scott Liem, a former president of Tempe Diablos, a public service organization, said Campbell “spent his life giving back and made an immeasurable impact on the growth and the enhancement of the quality of life in the city of Tempe.”
Liem’s father, Don Liem, also was a dedicated Tempe community servant and he described the two as “two of the fathers of the city of Tempe.” They were among the original founders of the Tempe Diablos.
“He was one of those guys in my life who was really a mentor for me,” Liem said. “Such a prominent leader in the city of Tempe from the very early days.”
A viewing for Campbell will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Richardson Funeral Home, 2621 S. Rural Road in Tempe.
A memorial service will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday at Dayspring United Methodist Church, 1365 E. Elliot Road in Tempe. A graveside service will follow at noon at the Tempe Double Butte Cemetery.
Campbell is survived by his daughter, Deborah Austin, and her husband, Zeke Austin; his son, Greg Campbell, and his wife, Jill Campbell; four grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.