| Dedicated alumnus, administrator and
scorekeeper [Former President Donald] Harward once commented that
of Bates’ 700-plus employees, two knew the most students:
Dean [James] Reese, and Leigh Campbell. Another metric might be,
who is invited to the most Bates weddings, and so appears in the
most pictures in Bates Magazine? Again, Dean Reese and Leigh
Campbell. Leigh Campbell grew up in Wiscasset, Maine, played on the
junior varsity basketball team and, in a foreshadowing of his life
at Bates, kept score for the Wiscasset High School varsity team. A
history major at Bates, Campbell was the manager of the men's
basketball team for four years, football team manager for two
years, sang in the Chapel Choir and Choral Society, and worked on
the Student and the Mirror. Leigh began keeping the scorebook for
the Bates men’s basketball team in his first year as a
student in 1960 and has served in that role most years since.
Admittedly, he missed a few games after he graduated while in
serving in the Army in Vietnam and then working as an accountant
and teacher for a few years. But in 1973 he returned to Bates as
Director of Financial Aid, and volunteered to score the games
again, both traveling with the team and covering home games in
Alumni Gym. Including his years as a student manager and scorer,
Leigh’s active service to Bates basketball includes 43
seasons, and over 50 years from start to finish. At a basketball
reunion in 2004, the men’s basketball alumni honored Leigh as
their "No. 1 supporter and friend.” Leigh Campbell also has
served as a Bates financial aid officer for 39 years, most of that
time as the Director of Financial Aid. The very best financial aid
officers do all the calculations and keep track of multi-million
dollar budgets. But they are also one-student-at-a-time counselors,
friends, and advisers, adept at snatching various financial
chestnuts from fires, and often dealing with very confidential or
difficult circumstances. Leigh Campbell was an expert mentor and
financial adviser to thousands of students -- no officer was ever
better at listening to a student’s or family’s
financial problems and finding a way to solve them fairly,
thoughtfully, and in confidence. It is accurate to say that in
every class since 1973, students graduated who would not have been
there but for Leigh’s professional judgment and personal
encouragement. Leigh was elected to the College Key, the alumni
honor society, when he was a senior, and he received the College
Key Distinguished Service Award in 2005 for lifelong service to
Bates. He also received the 2007 Harward Center Staff Award for
Community Volunteerism and Leadership, and that same year he was
elected as an honorary lifetime member of the Maine Association of
Student Financial Aid administrators—one of only eight people
to receive this honor since 1984. Known as a true sports fan to his
many friends, he has followed his passion for basketball each year
since the 1970s by taking a week of vacation from Bates to work as
an official scorekeeper for the Maine state high school basketball
tournament. Leigh tried to retire in 2007, but Bates was having
none of that: he was quickly asked to come back as a part-time
associate director, and yes, basketball scorer. For his lifetime of
service to this college, his bottomless love for Bates sports, and
his unequaled decades of commitments to our basketball teams and
friendships with our players, we honor Leigh Campbell with
induction into the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society. |
Bates' former director of financial aid, Leigh Campbell '64, has
kept score at Bates men's basketball games for 43 seasons.
|
