Ward Clarke Campbell

Yesterday, I received a letter from an old friend Helen Belnick. She informed me that a good friend, Ward Clarke Campbell had died.

I had not spoken to him in a year or two, but only because I'm in South Carolina and he was in New York, and life has a way of pressing ahead, filling days and weeks quickly enough that time slips into a rhythm that blurs everything but the immediate.

Back in 1980, at the age of 31, I was struggling to rebuild a life that alcohol abuse had ruined. I had been sober through AA for less than 6 months, but was determined to make it. The first step I needed to make beyond not drinking, was finding a job.

After reading the want ads in The Village Times, for several weeks, I spotted an ad for Delano Studios. They needed someone to run kilns and assist with shipping. Nervously, I applied, was interviewed and waited.

A few days passed before I received a call from Laurene Sama. She told me that the job had been filled by an earlier applicant, but that they would file my application for future openings.

Yeah, right, I thought, and resumed my search.

However, two weeks later, Mrs Sama called and said that Mr. Campbell (everybody called him Mr Campbell (to his amusement it turned out)) wanted to interview me again.

The interview went better than expected, and I got the job.

Working at Delano Studios was like being adopted into a new family of people who all cared about each other, celebrated life and its events.

My supervisor was Linda Speiser from Stony Brook. Through her and Ward Campbell, I learned about the business, and about life.

Ward had a way of nurturing a person, treating them with respect and kindness. He never tried to dominate or control his employees, but did befriend most of us.

Years later, after I had left Delano Studios, lived in Oregon where I attempted to build Geodesic homes (did get one up and sold in a bad mid-80s real estate market), I returned to New York to live. I visited Delano Studios and learned that Ward was selling, retiring.

I suppose that when I worked with him earlier, that the idea of him retiring seemed unlikely. How naive are we when we are young?

I wanted to buy the company, but could not. Instead, he recommended to the new buyer, G Stuart Smith of Low Country Guild, Bluffton, South Carolina, that I go down and help them set-up Delano Studios in its new location. I went and stayed.

Once again, Ward Campbell set into motion events that changed my life in ways inconceivable at the time, creating an opportunity for me to make a lot of new friends, live in a place that really is God's country, and work doing one thing I loved.

I owe Ward Campbell a lot of thanks, and am pleased to have known him, to have called him a friend.

More later.