Memorial Service Held for Kazue Edamatsu Campbel
On June 3rd, a memorial service was held for Kazue Edamatsu Campbell (June 19, 1932-March 2, 2017) at Marsh Chapel. Ms. Campbell was hired to lead the Japanese language program in 1985. Working tirelessly until her retirement in 2006, she developed and taught a wide variety of Japanese language and linguistics courses and built up the small program into a large one.
Prior to coming to Boston University, Kazue Campbell had taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was also on the editorial staff for the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, and after retirement translated the book William Wheeler: A Young American Professor in Meiji Japan (Hokkaido University Press). She was from Hiroshima and an atomic bomb survivor. Building on that experience, she spoke at schools and peace rallies throughout her life in Boston and around the country.
The event at Marsh Chapel was attended by over a hundred family, friends, former students, and former colleagues from Japanese, World Languages and Literatures, Romance Studies, and Linguistics (all one department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at the time of her retirement). It was officiated by Reverend Catherine Schuyler, a friend of Ms. Campbell’s daughter. There was a performance of Chidori no kyoku performed by Ms. Campbell’s friends and fellow Japanese studies specialists Tomoko Graham on koto and Mary Ellen Miller on shakuhachi. Beautiful singing was performed by the chorus CORO ALLEGRO, (Boston’s Classical Chorus for Members, Friends, and Allies of the LGBT Community) and singers also included Jeff Kline, the department chair who hired Ms. Campbell, and her daughter Yoshi Campbell. A eulogy by Ms. Campbell’s close friend and former colleague Susan Dorff (lecturer in French) was read by Paula Hennessey, also a French instructor who worked closely with Ms. Campbell. Additional remarks were made or sent by friends, former students, and colleagues. These included: one of her students from her time in the early 1980s who came all the way from Vermont to attend; Elizabeth deSebato Swinton (Curator and Art Historian) who was a Danforth Fellow at Harvard with Kazue Campbell, along with Merry (Corky) White (BU, Anthropology), who was also at the event; Frank Antonelli, from Geddes Language Center; Paula Hennesey and Jeff Kline from French; Peter Lynch, executive director of Green Across the Pacific, who arranged some of her Hiroshima related events. Remarks by colleague in Japanese, Sarah Frederick, are available here.
A prize in Japanese language is being set up in her honor. If you would like to donate, please use the Donate Now button at www.bu.edu/wll , check the box “This is an honorary and memorial gift,” and specify “Kazue Campbell.”
