Robin Spry-Campbell, 90, widow of the Rev. Jeffrey Campbell, died Oct. 23. She was born in Schenectady, NY, on Nov. 12, 1922.
She attended Skidmore College, as one of the youngest members in her freshman class studying arts education. She served in the US Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, MD. There her artistic talents were put to use for weapon design – an irony she relished later in life as an ardent and life-long civil rights and peace activist. She later shipped out to Germany with the Army, where she met her first husband, Bill Spry. On her return stateside she participated in the WPA project and attended Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. She went on to accept a position as an art teacher at the Putney School in Vermont.
There she met and married her second husband, Jeffrey Campbell. He had been a conscientious objector during World War II and went on to become a UU minister, who served our church in Amherst, MA during the 1960’s and 1970’s. He and Robin continued their work for civil rights and for peace and justice over many years.
Robin worked at the Putney School for 35 years. When she retired in 1985 she returned to upstate New York. She is survived by her daughters, Jocelyn Lash of Burlington, VT and Allison Campbell of Sebastopol, CA. The family says that Robin’s second husband died just ten days before she did.
Donations in Robin’s memory may be made to the Tompkins County SPCA, 1640 Hanshaw Rd., Ithaca, NY or the Ulysses Philomathic Library, 74 E. Main St., Trumansburg, NY 14886.
Sympathy notes may go to Jocelyn Lash, 364 Governor’s Lane, Shelburne, VT 05482.