This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

OBITUARY- Winifred J. Campbell, FORMER ACTON RESIDENT

Winifred J. Campbell, longtime resident of Concord and Acton, died July 11 of heart failure at Emerson Hospital. She was 94.

Ms. Campbell was born Winifred Johanna Culik in Cleveland, Ohio. She lived most of her childhood in Detroit, Michigan. Musically precocious, she studied piano as a young child at the Detroit Conservatory of Music. As a teenager she lived in Switzerland for two years with her mother’s relatives. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1939 with an A.B. in government and later that year married Robert Van Duyne Campbell. They moved to New York City where she received a master’s degree in 1941 from the School of Library Service at Columbia University. The couple then lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and in 1949 moved to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. While in Cambridge Ms. Campbell worked at the Widener Library at Harvard and when in the Philadelphia area worked at the Swarthmore College and Haverford College libraries. In 1967 Ms. Campbell and her husband moved to Acton and later to Concord. She continued her work as a librarian at the Widener and Andover-Harvard Theological Libraries at Harvard and retired in 1985. In 1995 Ms. Campbell and her husband moved to Newbury Court in Concord.

Ms. Campbell had a life-long interest in music, art, and world events. She regularly attended performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Concord Chamber Music Society Players. She enjoyed learning about other cultures and traveled with her husband throughout Europe and to Africa, Australia, and Asia.

Ms. Campbell was a longtime member of the First Parish in Concord where she was a deacon and active on several committees. She was a supporter of Renewal House, a program of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry. Ms. Campbell especially enjoyed her
volunteer work at the Concord Free Public Library.

Ms. Campbell leaves her two daughters, Constance Scribner and Kathleen Bean and a son, Arthur; three grandchildren, Siobain, Sarah, and Alexander; and four great-grandchildren, Lily, Maya, Katherine, and Kieran. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Joyce Culik and four nieces and nephews. Her husband of 64 years, Robert Van Duyne Campbell, died in 2003.

A private graveside service was held July 16. A memorial service will be held in the fall at the First Parish in Concord.

Arrangements are under the care of the DEE FUNERAL HOME OF CONCORD, Susan M. Dee and Charles W. Dee, Jr., Funeral Directors.

Memorials:
Contributions in her memory may be made to Concord Chamber Music Society, P. O. Box 69. Concord, MA 01742 (www.concordchamber music.org) or to Renewal House-Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, John Eliot Square, 10 Putnam St., Roxbury, MA 02119 (www.uuum.org/567778).

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Acton