William D. Campbell (Scouting)

William Durant Campbell (March 18, 1907 – October 20, 1995) was a highly-decorated leader of the Scouting movement in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

This article is about the Scouting movement leader. For others with similar names, see William Campbell.
Undated photo of Campbell

Campbell was born in Flint, Michigan, a grandson of William C. Durant, the founder of General Motors. He graduated from Princeton University in 1929, and first went into banking. After a few years, he became a field associate of the American Museum of Natural History and led six of their African expeditions in the 1930s.[1] In 1937, he built Monte Carlo Ranch House in Kenya.[2] During World War II, Campbell served in the U.S. Army as a battery commander. He retired as a major.

Background

In 1940 he married Beatrice Hawn, who died in 1987. They had one daughter, Margot Bogert, who was also a world Scouting leader and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sarah Lawrence College.[3][4]

Campbell was an officer of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1961 to 1965 and then from 1973 to 1985, and received Scouting awards from seven countries. He helped establish the World Scout Foundation and served as its chairman from 1969 to 1977. Campbell was awarded the Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting, in 1959.[5] Campbell was also an Eagle Scout and recipient of both the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award.

He is the only man in the history of the BSA to hold all five top-tier Scouting awards: the Bronze Wolf, the Silver Buffalo, the Silver Antelope, the OA Distinguished Service Award, and the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.[6] In 1971 he also received the highest distinction of the Scout Association of Japan, the Golden Pheasant Award.[7]

He lived on Beekman Place in Manhattan, New York.[8]

References
  1. "Chapter 5: 1934: Joining the American Museum of Natural History". Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. 2011-09-28.
  2. Brown, Monty (2001). Haven Under the Hill: A Kenya Vignette.
  3. "Memorials Class of 1929". Princeton University. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  4. "World Scout Foundation Annual Report 2002-2003" (PDF). World Scout Foundation. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  5. "List of recipients of the Bronze Wolf Award". scout.org. WOSM. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  6. "Distinguished Eagle Scout award recipients". National Eagle Scout Association. Boy Scouts of America. Retrieved 2015-09-25.
  7. 䝪䞊䜲䝇䜹䜴䝖日本連盟 きじ章受章者 [Recipient of the Golden Pheasant Award of the Scout Association of Japan] (PDF). Reinanzaka Scout Club (in Japanese). 2014-05-23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-11.
  8. Saxon, Wolfgang (1995-10-25). "W.D. Campbell, 88; Promoted Scouting In the Third World". Obituary. New York Times. Retrieved 2018-02-14.

Further reading
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