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The Eulogy by Marian Ruth Helm Smith for Mr. Campbell The beautiful eulogy given by Marian Ruth Helm Smith for a beloved Adair County High School Teacher, Mr. Campbell (Michael Dean Campbell), was truly memorable. She has graciously allowed us to reprint the eulogy to share her words that day with those who were unable to attend the funeral on Wednesday, December 28, 2005, at Grissom Funeral Home and with those who were there who will treasure the written copy, as well. for Michael Campbell at services Wednesday, December 28, 2005 Grissom Funeral Home Chapel, Columbia, KY An Expression of Gratitude and Tribute to Mr. Campbell, A Wonderful Teacher For those of you who may not know me, I AM a student of Mr. Campbell. My Adair County name is Marian Helm. Im married to a Smith now. I moved away from Adair County over 25 years ago in 1980 when I graduated from high school and went to College. This place is my home. I am honored and humbled to speak to the life and work of Mr. Campbell today. Doug, Beth and Ms. Campbell, we are grateful to you all for sharing Mr. Campbell with us through the years. Our hearts and prayers go to you and your families as you move through this time of grief and loss. Please know you are not alone. You are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses to Mr. Campbells life who love and care about you. We will all miss his physical presence and our prayer is that his spirit and the gift of the Holy Spirit will dwell with us in the days to come. I introduced myself by stating that I AM a student of Mr. Campbell. I very intentionally am saying I am a student of Mr. Campbell instead of I was a student because I believe, I am still learning from Mr. Campbell. I believe I will always be learning from Mr. Campbell!! Thank God, I am still learning from Mr. Campbell!!! According to my little handwritten schedule here in my hand it was August of 1979, some 25 years ago, I entered Room 6 at Adair County High School during second period to take Foundations of Advanced Mathematics with Mr. Campbell as my teacher. For the most part, Mr. Campbell knew what he was getting in this group of students. We as students knew who we were getting as a teacher. The name of the class is terribly misleading, Foundations of Advanced Mathematics. Im here to tell you there was nothing foundational at all in Mr. Campbells Advanced Mathematics class. All of us in the class had had Mr. Campbell for geometry and other courses and this was the last one, the exclamation point at the end of the series. A weeding out process.who would make it to the end to take Trig? Trig ughhhhhhh!!! Trigonometry!!!!!! Who in their right mind would sign up for such torture their senior year? We knew exactly what we were getting into. I can still see the class room now and I can tell you some of my Adair County High alumni who signed up for this torture um, excuse me trigonometry. Kevin Rich, Jennifer Perkins, Sherry Grant, Mitchell Skaggs, Rosemary Willis, Leslie Shirley, Jeff Giles, Marian Helm, Janet Loy, Gary Williams.. should I go on??? This was not my or any of my classmates first class with Mr. Campbell but, I knew it would be my last formal mathematics class with him, as did all my friends. You see we knew exactly what we were doing and we had signed up for Mr. Campbells trig class. Like Mr. Campbell, we knew what we were getting too. My good friend and noted author Dr. Parker Palmer says: Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subjects. We had signed up not for a class but, for a teacher who cared deeply about his students and his subject--mathematics and physics and the kids who signed up to take the classes!! Mr. Campbell was brilliant man with advanced degrees in mathematics and physics who was encouraged to stay on at the University of Virginia and do doctoral studies. A brilliant man groomed to teach mathematics at the doctoral level, who instead, chose to come to Adair County in 1965 and begin teaching math and physics to students of this county. I have been teaching in higher education for the past 15 years and for the past six years in my position as a faculty member in higher education and a Facilitator at the National Center for Courage and Renewal for teachers in k-12 across the country. I have been working with teachers of all disciplines to evoke a sense of renewal and courage in this work called teaching. As a result, I have had the opportunity to write about many teachers as parts of discussions or formal presentations. My reflections always have taken me back to the years in the Adair County Public School System. I have been challenged to stir up my own memories of good teachers. Those individuals who left an enduring mark on my own growth and development. I often found myself writing about Mr. Campbell. I speak or write of Mr. Campbell for several reasons I would like to share with you now. I speak or write of Mr. Campbell because he was a teacher who always recognized special talents, gifts and aptitudes in students. Mr. Campbell believed me and many other students into being smart! I have never considered myself to be a mathematician. Ask my husband, I struggle with balancing the checkbook and my sons Jerichos 5th grade math right now is rattling brain cells that have not been engaged in quiet some time. What is a polynomial anyway? But according to my report cards, which I have as evidence, Mr. Campbell thought I was smart and so I was smart!!! He always recognized special talents, gifts or aptitudes in students. I speak or write of Mr. Campbell when I say that he was one of those teachers who made the subject matter come alive. The subject for me was math, geometry and trigonometry. He loved it!!! Breathed it!! Worked it all the time!! It was so overwhelming to me!!! It amazed me to see him take that left hand and fill the chalkboard with some seemingly unbelievable problem to solve. I was so fascinated by his art work that, one time I had him do a problem for me that I just could not solve. I missed it on the test and probably ran out of room on the paper and I was so aggravated and mad. It was synthetic division by trial and error. You are not going to believe it but, I was so fascinated by this man and that particular piece of mathematical art and his intellect that I have kept that example of his intellectual artwork all these years. It serves as an example for me with my students that intellect, soul and spirit are combined in the heart of a good teacher. He wanted me to understand this particular problem and more importantly he wanted me to think and know I could solve this problem. When you look at this problem, who do you know besides Mr. Campbell or one of his little protogs, who would get a high and a thrill from doing this problem? I tell you he loved this subject of math so much!!! There were times when we as students would walk out of one of those trigonometry test and even Jennifer Perkins and Kevin Rich, the salutatorian and valedictorian of our class, would be scratching their heads. Where did he come up with that problem we would ask each other in the hallway or in the gym? That was not in the book or the review at the end of the chapter. Very few of us would get the problem right and he would be so disappointed. We would later learn it was a bonus. You know why? Because he had given us a problem to solve that involved a crisis or situation he was finding himself in or dealing with. For example, he might word the problem something like this.If a man wants to build a plane with the wing length such and such, and the nose to tail length such and such, could he build a plane this big in his garage which is so wide and so long and so high with a door offsetting by so many cm? and get it out when it was finished???? Now draw it to scale!!! Or a math physics combinationif a man wanted to put a Volkswagen engine that could rev up to such and such speed into a Cessna twin engine airplane that would need this much force and velocity to accelerate, what factors would needed to be considered?? We would later learn that these were crisis or situations he was finding himself in and he needed a little help. Or get this one. A man is sitting and working a cross word puzzle that is so many by so many centimeters wide and so many by so many centimeters long. How many (X) mm squares could fill the space equally? And you all thought he was working the puzzles for the words!!!! You see we as students knew about his other life. Mr. Campbell, like all exceptional teachers, taught who he was, an avid pilot, engineer, builder, creator, fascinated with things that moved, flew or that were challenging. I speak or write of Mr. Campbell when I say that he was a teacher who cared for me with deep respect. I always felt like I was never just another student with Mr. Campbell. Yes, it is true that my best friend through out high school was his son Doug. And the adventures we had driving around in that red Volkswagen or white van selling adds for the school newspaper for Betty Jean Mosley are best left unmentioned here. Mr. Campbell cared for me and I knew that. He wrote letters for my college and scholarship applications and always asked how I was doing when I would come home. For the past 25 years without fail, if Mr. Campbell saw either of my folks, Charles and Eulah Helm, they say, he always asks about you. This is what he wrote in my senior year book: Marian, You have grown up to be one of the very special people in the lives of everyone in my family. We all love and cherish you dearly. We shall always be interested in knowing of you and your activities and accomplishments. We feel you have been a good influence Doug and appreciate all you have done for him. Come back and see us often. Love, Mr. Campbell.I speak or write of Mr. Campbell when I remember his energy, zest and enthusiasm and his deeply personal nature. The last time I saw Mr. Campbell was at my grandmothers 95th birthday party. How many teachers have you all had that come to your grandmothers 95th birthday party? He gave me that great gentle hug with a smile as wide as his flipped doo wop hair and said, Marian, no, more appropriately, Marian Ruth, my other Adair County name, how are you? You are as beautiful as ever! He possessed a deeply personal nature, a man who cared about his students and their lives years after they had graduated. I speak or write of Mr. Campbell when I remember his love for his family. We as his students knew he loved and respected his family. He loved his parents. He adored you Ruth Ann. Sometimes I think the only thing he could not rationalize or factor out mathematically was your compassion for other people. He always spoke of this to us as students. I too learned from you and your compassion. I have a note here July 23, l980, from you. It simply says, Thanks, dont give me any back talk!!! He was amazed by you and just could not figure the depth and breadth of this compassion out. Doug and Beth, the stories he shared about you! He laughed and joked at his parenting and at times even asked us, his students for advice. Good teaching comes in many forms, but good teachers share one trait: they are truly present in the classroom, deeply engaged with their students and their subject. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students, so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self. (Dr. Parker Palmer) Teaching is soulful and fruitful work. Today we honor the heart and life of a soulful, fruitful, wonderful and dedicated teacher. Three decades of teaching, every day in the classroom came down to this one thing--Mr. Campbells intellect, emotion, spirit and the students and his sacred space. Good teachers have a power as teachers in their capacity to awaken a truth within us, a truth we can reclaim years later by recalling their impact on our lives. If we discovered a teachers heart in ourselves by meeting a great teacher, recalling that meeting may help us take heart in our own work in the world. I remember and honor Mr. Campbell the man who was in love with his students and his subject. Mr. Campbell was a witness for all teachers who care for young people in remarkable ways. Now former students, faculty colleagues, I have a math problem for you. Lets do some simple multiplication. If you teach five math classes a day, with an average of 30 students per class for 30 years, how many students will you have taught? At minimum that is nearly 5000 students (rounded up). How many of us can say that we have directly affected that many lives? Perhaps saved that many lives? Nurtured that many lives? The fruits of Mr. Campbells lifes work lives on in teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, physicists, pharmacists, college professors, dentists, more teachers, preachers, business men and women, bankers, artists, musicians, mothers, fathers and grandparents and the list goes on. As I speak of Mr. Campbell this day, I am reminded this day of a small poem from a book of poetry called Teaching With Fire written by Charles Olson. I too am now a teacher. Ive come to feel and know that the quality of presence, attention, sense of adventure, and inquiry I bring to a classroom results from leaving my roots on. I feel I have been taught by many master teachers, one of which, was and is Mr. Campbell. This 23 word poem reminds me of that world of teachers, many from Adair County, like Mr. Campbell whose wholeness lives and thrives within me when I leave the roots on. The Title to the poem is These Days. These DaysRest well!!! Mr. Campbell, you wild plane flying, funky hair doo, great compassionate teacher!! Your work has been good!! The fruit is beautiful and sweet!!!! Your students know where the roots came from, when we let our roots dangle, with their dirt on, we are reminded of the gift of your teaching in our lives, the nurturing soil around our roots. Thanks be to God for the life and teaching of Mr. Campbell!!!! Thanks be to God! Amen. Marian Ruth Helm Smith is graduate of Adair County High School. She now holds several degrees in the nursing field, including RN, MSN, and Nurse Practitioner (ARNP). She resides in Crestwood, KY, where her husband is pastor of the United Methodist Church. She is assistant Professor of Nursing at Bellarmine University and facilitator for the National Center for Courage and Renewal. Click here for the complete obituary, photos, and tributes to Michael Dean Campbell This story was posted on 2005-12-31 10:55:46
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