Campbell, Laurence Randolph, 1903-1987

Laurence Campbell was a very active educator and contributor to the field of scholastic journalism. Born March 1, 1903 in Batavia, Iowa, he was educated in the public schools of Washington (state) and Colorado. He received his B.A. in 1926 from San Jose State Teacher's College (now State University), his M.S. from Northwestern University in 1931, and his Ph.D. from that institution in 1939. He also attended the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Colorado.

Campbell was extensively involved in teaching in public and nonpublic high schools, as well as at colleges and universities. He was a high school teacher in San Francisco (1926-1928) and Menlo, CA (1928-1933). In addition, he taught English at the Yuba County Junior College, Marysville, CA, and was Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1939-1941) and the University of California (1942-1943); Associate Professor in Journalism at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA (1944-1945); Professor of English at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (1945-1947); Professor of English, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (1947-1950); Professor of English, (1950-1959), Professor of Education (1960-1961), and Professor of English Education (1968-1973), all at Florida State University (FSU), Tallahassee, FL, and adjunct professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee.

His administration work in higher education included acting Dean of the School of Journalism, University of Oregon (1947-1950), Dean of the Florida State University School of Journalism (1950-1959), and head of the Department of Educational Foundations, Florida State University (1961-1963). According to the Florida Board of Control, the FSU School of Journalism was abolished in 1959 as an economy measure.

Campbell had a very active professional career. He was News Editor of the San Francisco Edition of the Wall Street Journal (1943-1944), wrote reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle, conducted a summer research project for the Denver Post in 1950, and served as Executive Secretary of the Oregon Scholastic Press. He received the Journalism Education Association's Carl Towley Award, Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Key, National Scholastic Press Association Pioneer Award, and other honors for service to student journalism. He wrote or co-wrote seven monographs (Exploring Journalism; Effective News Reporting; News Beat; Newsmen At Work; A Principal's Guide to High School Journalism, 1944; A Guide to Radio-TV Writing, 1950; How to Report and Write the News, 1961), and published many articles, reviews, editorials, and booklets. Campbell was an advisory editor of the journals Quill and Scroll and Scholastic Editor, lectured on journalism at the University of Cairo, the American University in Cairo, the University of Alexandria, and other colleges in Egypt and Jordan in the 1950s, and was a studies executive and educational consultant at Berry College and Berry Academy (Mt. Berry, GA). From 1956-1957, Campbell served on Governor LeRoy Collins' Committee on Educational Television.

By the time Campbell became FSU Dean, the School of Journalism had been existence since 1931. Journalism instruction had been offered as early as 1928, when FSU was Florida State College for Women. In 1931, the Department of Journalism was established, with Professor Earl Vance, who offered the first journalism courses, as the chair. The School of Journalism was founded in 1949. Dr. Richard B. Eide was director for the first year. Campbell was his successor, who became dean when the school achieved independent status in the fall of 1950. While serving as Dean of FSU's School of Journalism, Campbell founded and directed FSU's Annual School Press Institute, which sponsored a series of workshops on the FSU campus for journalism students in the Southeast. He was also Executive Secretary of the Florida Scholastic Press Association (FSPA) from 1954-1958, and in 1958, FSPA honored Campbell as America's "Mr. High School Journalism." In 1959, Campbell founded and directed FSU's Future Teachers of America Institute.

After the School of Journalism was disbanded in 1959, Campbell continued his teaching activities in the FSU College of Education. He taught undergraduate courses in the Department of Educational Foundations, serving as its department head from 1959-1963. As a faculty member in the Department of English Education (1963-1973), he taught courses for students seeking certification in journalism. This program included graduate courses in Mass Media and the History of American Mass Media. At the same time, Campbell continued to be a strong advocate for freedom of the press. For example, he championed the right of the Florida Flambeau, the FSU student newspaper, to disagree with university officials. He also opposed the administration's decision to terminate the traditional use of student fees to serve as circulation revenue for the newspaper.

Campbell's dedication to the journalistic profession was demonstrated by his many activities in Quill and Scroll, the International Honor Society for High School Journalists. From 1942-1958, he was Director of Quill and Scroll's Critical Service, a service that invited the Society's member schools to participate in an annual newspaper program. The Critical Service also evaluated the journalistic merit of each school's newspaper, in addition to student growth and development on their newspaper staffs. It annually presented the George H. Gallup Award to a carefully selected group of high school newspapers rated by Critical Service judges as "distinguished for outstanding records." During those years, Campbell was Contributing Editor to Quill and Scroll Magazine. From 1965 until his retirement in 1973 from FSU, he directed Quill and Scroll Studies, a program that conducted surveys on such topics as high school underground newspapers, measurement of the readability of high school newspapers, the role of high school press associations, investigations of teenage attitudes toward the First Amendment, and studies of teenage media habits. During this period, Quill and Scroll Studies gathered data about early high school publications in each of the fifty states. The Quill and Scroll Foundation funded these studies and surveys, many of which Campbell published. After his retirement from FSU in June 1973, Campbell continued to direct Quill and Scroll Studies and to teach at school press institutes at Central Michigan and Syracuse Universities during the summer. He died March 16, 1987.