Former WLSC President Clyde Campbell Passes At 96
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WHEELING -- Former West Liberty State College President Clyde Campbell is being remembered as a gentleman, scholar and someone who genuinely listened to and cared for those around him.
Campbell, a Wheeling resident, died Monday at the age of 96.
He graduated from Warwood High School in 1948 before earning undergraduate degrees in chemistry from the former West Liberty State College. He later received a master's degree from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate from West Virginia University.
Campbell was inducted into the Wheeling Hall of Fame in 2015. According to biographical information from that honor, he worked for Mobay Chemical as a senior research chemist in the 1960s before returning to West Liberty to chair the School of Natural Sciences. He later served as dean of administration and academics before becoming WLSC president from 1984-1995.
While at Mobay, Campbell secured 31 national and foreign patents, most involving research in plastics, plant pigments and ruminant metabolism.
He was also a man of faith who taught adult Sunday school classes at Warwood United Methodist Church for more than 60 years, according to those who knew him.
Campbell was elected to the Ohio County Board of Education in the late 1960s and served as board president during his tenure. He is also represented on the West Liberty University "Wall of Honor," and the campus health sciences building, Campbell Hall, bears his name.
"He is a Wheeling legend," said David Javersak, professor emeritus at West Liberty University. "He is in the Wheeling Hall of Fame, and he has received every honor West Liberty could give him.
"He was also the nicest man I have ever met. In 80 years of meeting people, that says a lot. He was extraordinary. He spent his life helping other people -- students, faculty and alumni. He just gave back to the community. He was the essence of what a man should be."
Javersak said Campbell lived by the golden rule and treated others "with kindness and grace."
"People who worked there under his tenure described the place as 'family,'" he said. "He treated everybody with respect because they were human beings."
Javersak said he knew Campbell for more than 55 years.
"We were good friends. We went to concerts together," he said. "In later years, we went golfing. We would go to every event West Liberty had. If there was a concert, basketball game or recital, he was there.
"He also had the best Christmas parties. One year the college cut the party out of the budget, but Clyde and (wife) Joan paid for it out of their own pockets. He was very social. People liked him."
West Liberty University President Emeritus John McCullough, who hired Campbell in 1971, said he was "a wonderful gentleman for whom to work."
"What you saw was what you got. He was honest, respectful and to the point," McCullough said. "His respect you had to earn. If you did, he was with you all the way. His word was as solid as it could be."
Wheeling attorney and Ohio County Board of Education President David Croft first met Campbell as a freshman at West Liberty in the late 1980s and later served with him on the West Liberty University Foundation board.
"He was a friend," Croft said. "He was the heart of West Liberty. He is one of those guys you cannot replace. I'm just sad."
Croft said Campbell made even new students feel welcome.
"He would stop and speak to us, and it felt like a privilege," he said. "He never made you feel that gap. He made you feel welcome."
Former West Virginia Delegate Erikka Storch recalled knowing Campbell and his wife Joan from childhood and later working with him on local issues.
"I loved Dr. Campbell and his wife. They were great people," she said. "He was a pillar of the community."
Dr. Dan Joseph said Campbell played a pivotal role in his family's life and career.
"He touched so many lives. There are hundreds of stories like ours," Joseph said. "Without Clyde, Touchstone doesn't exist and I am not an orthodontist."