Steven Grant "Steve" Campbell

Steven Grant Campbell of Aromas, California, passed away on September 18, 2023 at Stanford Hospital surrounded by his seven children and beloved wife, Margaret, of 47 years. He was 72.

Steve was born on February 1, 1951 at Sequoia Hospital in San Carlos, California to Nettie Jean Tays Campbell (nee Tays) and Alan Campbell. When Steve was seven they moved to Los Altos. Steve and his younger sister Leslie attended schools in Los Altos and every summer they would go to Lake Almanor with their friends the Bakers. Steve loved the outdoors and was a boy scout.

He attended San Jose State University and graduated with a degree in psychology. Steve married Peggy the day after Christmas in 1976. Their family grew and he took night classes to become a drafter. He showed exceptional aptitude and was promoted to a design role as a mechanical engineer. Throughout his lifetime he worked on many different kinds of machines but spent the majority of his career at Heinzen Manufacturing, where he designed produce conveyors. He loved to know how things worked, just like his dad before him.

He was an avid music lover and played guitar, piano, and sang. He could talk cars with one of his kids and classical music with the next. He enjoyed science fiction, classic literature, the vastness of space exploration, playing chess and discussing all manner of subjects (i.e. a Renaissance man). He loved walking by the sea with his wife, dressing up as any character at family events, and traveling the world. He spent much of his college years hitch-hiking across Europe, sometimes alone, and then with Peggy and even their first child Clay. Steve loved to work on his farm, build projects–either his own or one of his children's, take walks on the beach, and help Peggy with her landscaping. He was a baseball & soccer coach, a Sunday school teacher, a bandmate, and a learned man who manned the bbq.

Steve was a strong Christian and attended Faith Community Church. When he and Peggy were first married, they attended First Baptist Los Altos and then Twin Lakes Church when they moved to La Selva Beach. At those places, Steve served as a Sunday School teacher for over forty years.

He is survived by his loving family:
(visit our family tree if you need visual aids)
Wife: Margaret Jo Campbell (nee Elliott)
Children: Clay, Rachel, Dave, Laura, Summer, James, Lizzie
Children-in-law: Adam, Phaidra, Dan, Bobby, Orly
Grandkids: Calvin, Seth, Mercy, Layne, Cole, Miles, Annabel, Jack, Zoe
Sister Leslie, her husband Ron, their four boys and their kids
Brother-in-laws and their children and grandchildren

Steve was preceded in death by his mother Nettie Tays Campbell, father Alan Campbell, father-in-law Bill Elliott, mother-in-law Margaret Elliott, brother-in-law Bill Elliott, and niece Maddie Elliott.

Steve was the absolutely best dad in the world. He was kind, gentle, funny, loving, knowledgeable, and hard-working with the best laugh you could hear anywhere in any room. Most of all, he was a strong servant of God who believed in the love and saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and led his whole family as an honorable man of faith. May the light that any of us shine come close to this humble man of God's.