 |
 |
|
|
|
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
Rev. Anthony C. Campbell dies at 63
Reverend Anthony C. Campbell (STH'65), a School of Theology professor
and preacher-in-residence, died on September 27 after suffering a massive
stroke. He was 63.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reverend Anthony C. Campbell Photo by Vernon Doucette |
|
|
Campell's career as a preacher took him to the pulpits of the Black Church
in America, BU's Marsh Chapel, and Westminster Abbey. "When I first
came to Boston," BU Chancellor John Silber says, "I heard about
this extraordinary preacher at the Eliot Congregational Church in Roxbury.
I went to see whether he could possibly be as good as people said he was,
and found out that he was better. I returned with my family Sunday after
Sunday."
Born in Anderson, S.C., and raised in Detroit, Campbell was the son of
celebrated Baptist minister Steven C. Campbell. The elder Campbell, a
leader of the National Baptist Convention and pastor of historic Russell
Street Baptist Church in Detroit, was known as "Dynamo," a nickname
that could also have been applied to his son.
The young Campbell accompanied his father in travels across North America,
Europe, and the Middle East, carrying the bags, as he liked to recall,
and becoming fluent in Yiddish and Lithuanian. More significantly, he
heard the greatest Baptist preachers in the world, a group he was later
to join.
After attending Morehouse College in Atlanta, Campbell graduated from
Howard University in Washington, D.C., and earned his graduate degree
from Boston University, where at the time of his death he was a School
of Theology professor of homiletics and a preacher-in-residence.
Campbell's career personified ecumenism. He was the pastor not only of
Baptist congregations, including his father's, but also of Congregational
and Methodist. He was a canon of the Episcopal Cathedral of San Diego
and a chaplain at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H. His reach was international.
In addition to preaching at Westminster Abbey, he was a regular visiting
preacher and scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford, following in the steps
of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He preached in 27 countries
on 4 continents.
Campbell's energies flowed over and through the secular world as well.
At different times, he held positions with 3M, Union Carbide, and a variety
of government agencies, including the Job Corps and the Massachusetts
Office for Children.
At BU, Campbell is remembered for his tireless work in rejuvenating the
tradition of prophetic preaching. For more than a dozen years, he directed
the summer services at Marsh Chapel, preaching himself and bringing in
great preachers as guests.
"Tony Campbell's untimely death is a tragic loss," says Silber.
"His work was not done. He was deeply engaged at the time of his
death in creating a great series of international conferences on the ministries
of the brothers Wesley."
Geoffrey Hill, a UNI professor and a close friend and colleague of Campbell's,
says, "He imparted knowledge, as he received knowledge, with immense
energy and concentration. Taking a well-justified pleasure and pride in
his wide, ever-growing fame as one of the greatest contemporary preachers
of the Word, he was nevertheless at once proud and humble. Ever vigilant,
he worked with dedicated practicality where that was needed, with an astonishing
intuitive grasp when intuition was called for."
The Reverend Alice Goodman, a priest of the Church of England, who studied
with Campbell, says of him, "He was pastor and teacher to the end;
his whole life was a series of parables."
Campbell is survived by three children, Samuel, Paul, and Jocelyn, of
Boston, his brothers, Finley, of Chicago, Major and Russell, of Washington,
his sister Arsonia Walls, of Detroit, and two grandchildren.
His funeral was on October 1 at Concord Baptist Church in Boston. A memorial
service will be held later at BU.
4 October 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations