Richard "Dick" Campbell Obituary

Richard “Dick” Campbell, 97, of Arvada, Colorado, completed his life’s journey on December 23, 2025, following a short illness. He was born July 14, 1928, in Painesville, Ohio, to Eugene and Edna (née Davis) Campbell. He graduated from West High School in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was president of the student council and lettered in football, basketball, and baseball. For his prowess in baseball, he earned interest from the Cleveland Indians organization while still a teenager. Opting to further his education, with the help of MLB Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau, Dick enrolled at the University of Illinois. There he met the love of his life, Nancy Hudson.

After a year of university studies, Dick entered the MLB draft and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. Spring training with the Phillies resulted in his missing the spring semester of every school year. In the summers, he played minor league baseball across the U.S. and Canada. Completing his bachelor’s degree in five years, he married Nancy in l952 and then entered another draft – that of the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. He and Nancy set up housekeeping at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Fortuitously, Nancy noticed an advertisement for the job of player-manager of the post baseball team. Dick applied and was soon on his way to managing the team, which won the 1953 National Baseball Congress Championship.

At the end of his service in the Army, Dick taught physical education and art and coached several sports in a string of downstate and central Illinois schools. Then army buddy Joe Newton called and lured Dick and Nancy to venture north to the Chicago area, where Joe taught and coached, at York Community High School in Elmhurst. Dick taught and coached there, winning state-wide acclaim for his winning basketball program until his alma mater, The University of Illinois, called to offer him the position of associate basketball coach. Moving his family to Champaign-Urbana, he helped led the Illini under Head Coach Harv Schmidt from 1967-1974. After this assignment, Dick and Nancy returned to the Chicago area, where they taught until their retirements from York.

Coach Campbell was respected by his teammates, colleagues, friends, and sports journalists for his dedication to high levels of excellence, integrity, and sportsmanship. Generations of students and players were impacted by his mentoring. Coach was always a gentleman, gracious and generous in spirit, an encourager who was genuinely interested in every person he met.

Ever the sportsman, Dick followed many teams in many sports at every level. “Soup” was over the moon when his Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series in 2016 after a 108-year drought. He enjoyed years of providing color commentary for the television broadcasts of the Illinois High School Basketball Tournament in Champaign-Urbana. In 1983 he was elected to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and in 2010 the York High School gym was renamed the Richard “Dick” Campbell Gymnasium in his honor. Dedicated to physical fitness, Dick played golf, walked and lifted weights, rode his stationary bike daily, and practiced Pilates well into his 90’s.

In 1995, following daughter Betsy to Colorado, Dick and Nancy settled in Fort Collins, where they delighted in daily vistas of the Front Range mountains. A voracious reader and life-long news enthusiast, Dick taught classes on current events at the Front Range Forum. As his beloved Nancy required more and more care during her Alzheimer’s journey, Dick took tender loving care of her, always able to coax a smile. When Nancy passed on in 2017, Dick moved in with Betsy and grandson Cole in Arvada, Colorado.

Dick loved to laugh and kept his I love you’s up to date. He was a devoted spouse, proud dad, and affectionate granddad. He always had time for his family, his friends, and former players who stayed in touch.

Preceding Dick in death were his parents, his aunt Myra (née Campbell) Moyer and her husband Pete, his son-in-law Gene Hennig, his son Pete, his grandson Richard, and his beloved wife of 65 years Nancy (née Hudson). Dick leaves behind his children, Kristie (Ralph Baumgartner), Ken (Kathleen Campbell), and Betsy (Joe Reed); 9 grandchildren (Kate, Luke, Emily, Amanda, Peter, Vince, Melanie, Michaela, and Cole); and 9 great-grandchildren (Jocilyn, Naomi, Ginessa, Giovanni, Jordan, Ariyella, Aria, Simon, and Polly).

A service of remembrance is scheduled for March 28, 2026, 11:00 AM Mountain Time, at Whisper Creek Clubhouse, 8820 Ellis Street, Arvada, CO.

Dick was a life-long current events enthusiast who loved his country. Memorial donations can be made to Protect Democracy and, in honor of his dear Nancy, to the Alzheimer's Association.