Steven Frank Campbell

1953 - 2016

Steve Campbell, 63, a lifelong journalist, historian, storyteller, fly fisherman and explorer of the Western wilderness, died Tuesday, July 12, 2016, in Fort Worth following a two-year battle with a rare cancer. Following Steve's wishes, cremation will be followed by a family ceremony far from the beaten path. Steve's 40-plus year journalism career took him from Texas to Alaska, working for the Grand Junction (Colo.) Daily Sentinel, Houston Post, Denver Rocky Mountain News, Anchorage Daily News, Aspen (Colo.) Times, (Ogden, Utah) Standard-Examiner, and Las Vegas Sun. He was a writer and editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for more than 10 years before undergoing radical treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland, a rare form of a rare cancer. Steven Frank Campbell was born March 4, 1953, in Baytown to Francis "Frank" Darr and Thelma Corine Walters Campbell, whose lifelong support enabled his life of adventure. A graduate of Ross S. Sterling High School, he grew up near Cedar Bayou, sharing a cherished childhood with his beloved siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Steve's journalism career began at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University-San Marcos,) where he covered sports and news, with assignments that included photographing President Lyndon Baines Johnson's final public appearance six days before LBJ's death in 1973. Steve gravitated to the Rocky Mountain West after college. He was an avid outdoorsman, covering sports and outdoor recreation for the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction from 1976 to 1984, taking his only break from journalism between 1978 and 1981 to develop marketing for then-fledgling Marmot Mountain Works (now Marmot.) He left Grand Junction in 1984 to work for the Houston Post until 1986, when he moved to Denver. He worked for Denver's Rocky Mountain News from 1986 to 1995, moving from sports to news and becoming the paper's state editor, overseeing award-winning coverage of environmental and natural resources issues affecting the rapidly changing West. The Rocky's coverage of fires in Glenwood Canyon was a 1995 Pulitzer Prize finalist. The family wishes to thank Mary Milam, M.D., who honored Steve's wishes to continue treatment after others declined, and the extraordinary nurses who cared for Steve in the inpatient hospice unit at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, especially Phil Mulvey, Celeste Barfield, Dianne Guinn and Diane Ward. Survivors: Steve is survived by the ultimate love of his life, his daughter, Molly Lauren Campbell. They shared many a historical documentary together. He is also survived by his wife, Kristen Newcomer Campbell of Fort Worth; his mother, Thelma Campbell of Baytown; sister and brother-in-law, Connie and Gregg Arndt of Huffman; brother and sister-in-law, James E. and Lynn Reed-Campbell of Austin; mother-in-law, Sarah Anne "Nana" Newcomer of Longmont, Colo.; sister-in-law, Ida Newcomer of Longmont; brother-in-law, Ed Newcomer Jr. of Gaborone, Botswana; and extended family and lifelong friends, including Dan Peters of Baytown and David Birdwell of Santa Fe, N.M., with whom he shared many of his fondest adventures.