Sterling Campbell

On Wednesday, September 30, 2009, Sterling Campbell died in his sleep from complications of congestive heart disease. He was 85 years old. Sterling was born in 1923 in Grant's Pass Oregon. His family lived up and down the California/Oregon coastline, following the crops, and on the farm in Mount Sterling, Illinois. He was the fifth child of six born to Corlis and Lydia Campbell. In 1941, on the way to mail a letter, he met a persuasive recruiter at the post office and joined the Marines. He needed a note from his mother because of his age. He served in the South Pacific in the 1st Marine Division and was in the battle for Peleliu. After the war he went to college at the University of Illinois where he received a BS and MS in Thermodynamic Engineering and met his wife Charlotte Newton, who was also at U of I, studying pre-med. Upon graduation they moved to San Diego and his job with Convair, later General Dynamics. He proudly worked on the Apollo Space Mission and the Tomahawk Cruise Missile.

His interests included golf and sailing. He owned a 48 foot ketch with his brothers Dick and Bob. He was a member of the Kona Kai Yacht Club and the San Diego Power Squadron. He learned and taught celestial navigation classes, and flew small airplanes until he was banned from certain airports for acrobatic excess. He served as moderator of the Mission Hills Congregational Church in San Diego where he also sang in the choir with his wife and four daughters. He commuted to work for years on a Vespa, which he hated, while he saved up for a new Karmann Ghia, but came home in 1960 with a year old Austin Healey, and a new stereo, both of which he loved. After Charlotte died in 2003, Sterling moved to Santa Cruz to be near his daughter.

He was predeceased by sister Dorothy Crockett, and brothers Gene, Donald, Robert and Richard. He is survived by his daughters, Catherine Jean Campbell Marc Alexander of Irvine, Lynn Campbell Gary Marietti of Santa Cruz, Corliss Campbell Richard Schmidt of San Luis Obispo, Elizabeth Talkington Tim of Camas, WA, and grandchildren Colin Alexander of San Francisco, Laura Alexander of Irvine, Charlotte Alexander of Berkeley, and Bailey and Morgan Talkington of Camas. Service arrangements in Santa Cruz and San Diego are pending.