Donald Noble Campbell died Wednesday, July 29, 2015, at West Columbia, TX.
He was born October 2, 1924, in Wheeling, WV, the son of Clyde Stewart Campbell and Bertha Mae Noble Campbell.
He attended and graduated from Warwood High School, where he played on a very successful basketball team and was team captain his senior year. He earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from Washington and Jefferson College and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from West Virginia University. He also studied meteorology at the University of Virginia. He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.
In 1959, he and two other scientists started a new company in Ronceverte, WV, named Greenbrier Instruments. Don was a pioneer in the field of gas chromatography, and the new company successfully produced gas chromatographs and other gas analysis instruments. Greenbrier Instruments was later purchased by Bendix Corporation, and Don became plant manager for a number of years before being transferred to a Bendix plant near Baltimore, MD. Don was recognized and won numerous awards for his contributions in the scientific field of chemistry. He chaired the Greenbrier Valley Airport Authority at one time and was instrumental in the construction of the airport near Lewisburg and the beginning of commercial air service in the Greenbrier Valley. After retiring from the Bendix Corporation, Don began consulting with Fluid Data Corporation in Angleton, TX, and eventually become manager of that facility. He was a member of the American Chemical Society, Instrument Society of America, Phi Lambda Upsilon, and Sigma Xi. He held a number of patents and published numerous technical papers.
Don was preceded in death by his parents; a son, David Leslie Campbell; and his loving wife, Caroline Sellards Campbell.
He is survived by his daughter, Donna Campbell Nickell (David Yost) of Lewisburg, WV; sons, Dr. James Stewart Campbell (Alana) of New Martinsville, WV, and Col. Don Aiken Campbell (Emma) of Washington, IL; daughter, Caroline Rebecca Fisher (Rick) of North East, MD; sons, William David Campbell of Darlington, MD, and William Andrew Campbell (Dawn) of Bel Air, MD; 12 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Don was a loving husband and father who will be remembered for his kindness, fairness, and the strong values he taught and lived.
Services will be held at Dulaney Memorial Gardens in Timonium, MD, where he will be laid to rest.
Don’s family requests that donations be made in his memory to Central Emergency Services Inc., 400 North 13th Street, West Columbia, TX 77486.
Palms Funeral Home in Angleton is in charge arrangements, which are incomplete at this time.
Obituary originally published in the August 11, 2015, edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.