The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Saturday bestowed its highest honor for public service, leadership and stewardship, the Churchill Bell, on Chairman Emeritus and former President and CEO Colin G. Campbell and his wife, Nancy N. Campbell.
The Campbells are only the 12th recipient of the award, first given in 1992 and reserved for those who exemplify engaged citizenship that reflects the principles of liberty, courage, dignity and devotion to the common good as preserved and interpreted by Colonial Williamsburg.
Chairman Thomas F. Farrell II presented the award during a black-tie reception in the Campbells honor at the Williamsburg Lodge, coinciding with a semi-annual meeting of the Board and the public announcement of the $600 million Campaign for History and Citizenship, which launched in 2009 under Campbell’s presidency and has already raised more than $300 million.
“Colin and Nancy Campbell have devoted their lives together to leadership for society’s benefit, whether through the educational missions of Colonial Williamsburg and Wesleyan University or the broader stewardship efforts of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the National Trust for Historical Preservation,” Farrell said. “Their work stands as a model for the principles enshrined in this award, and we are extraordinarily fortunate for his decades-long, shared leadership of this great organization.”
“In the face of great challenges, Colin and Nancy strengthened and advanced both the community and the Foundation, preserving the past as a platform to educate about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and stimulate thought about the ‘Idea of America,’ both into the 21st century and beyond,” Farrell said.
The citation accompanying the award states that the Campbells “exemplify the ideals of American public service and the preservation ethic. With manners gracious and endearing, deeds large and small, and leadership grand and intimate, Colin and Nancy helped make real the belief that insights into the American pasts may guide the republic toward excellence and fulfill the democratic hopes of our nation’s founding generation.”
“Together, Colin and Nancy made the Foundation a stronger, more vibrant, and more vital institution,” the citation reads.
Surprised with the award – delivered by Colonial Williamsburg actor-interpreter Bill Barker in character as Thomas Jefferson – the Campbells thanked all present for their support of the Foundation’s mission.
“This is an institution created in the causes of preservation and the lessons we can draw from our nation’s revolutionary founding,” Colin Campbell said. “Colonial Williamsburg is indeed fortunate to count you among its friends. Thank you.”
Nancy Campbell recalled her first visit to the Revolutionary City as a fourth grader.
“It was magic. We entered another world. It’s still magic,” she said. “To all of you, our admiration knows no bounds. Your work has made Colonial Williamsburg a window to the past.”
Crafted by Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Trades to resemble a town crier’s bell, the award replicates the Williamsburg Award as presented on Dec. 7, 1955 at London’s historic Drapers’ Hall to Sir Winston Churchill by then-Foundation Chairman Winthrop Rockefeller.
“The Churchill Bell is an honor that places Colin and Nancy in very exclusive company, and rightly so,” said Mitchell B. Reiss, Colonial Williamsburg President and CEO. “Their shared legacy of education, preservation and engaged citizenship spans the nation and world. Here, it lives through interactive programming that engages and inspires our guests daily, in an expanded endowment, and in the united region now known as America’s Historic Triangle – a concept forged through their leadership. We are all deeply grateful for their tireless commitment to our community, to the Foundation and to its broader mission.”
The Campbell presidency coincided with the economic downturn that followed the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the Great Recession. The Foundation weathered the crises with fundraising successes and a reinvigoration of programming, including Revolutionary City street theater, begun in 2006, and the RevQuest: Save the Revolution!, the popular augmented reality spy game launched five years later. Outside the foundation, the Campbells quietly led the region toward the 2007 Jamestown tricentennial, hosting Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain in the Historic Area and building a lasting regional destination brand.
Colin Campbell served as Colonial Williamsburg’s President and CEO from April 2000 until October 2014. He was elected a member of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees in 1989 and served as its chairman from 1998 to February 2008. From 1988 until July of 2000 he was president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, created by John D. Rockefeller Jr., founder of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Previously he was president of Wesleyan University for 18 years beginning in 1967 after serving as a vice president of the American Stock Exchange. Before joining the stock exchange, he was an associate at the law firm of Cummings & Lockwood of Stamford, Connecticut.
Colin Campbell served on the management committee of Jamestown 2007 and as vice chair of its steering committee. He sat on the College of William & Mary’s Board of Visitors and on the board of the College’s Mason School of Business Foundation, and served as a director of WHRO and of the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education. He has also served as a trustee of the New-York Historical Society and as chairman of the PBS Board of Directors. He has received honorary degrees from 11 colleges and universities as well as the James Kent Medal from Columbia University School of Law. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia’s law school.
Nancy Campbell is chairwoman emeritus of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She has served in numerous positions with a range of organizations, including as: a member of the Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission; chairwoman of the Preservation League of New York State; a commissioner of the Connecticut Historical Commission; chairwoman of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation; president of the Greater Middletown Preservation Trust; special advisor on the Merritt Parkway to the Connecticut Commissioner of Transportation and as a director of the Gateway Visitors Center Corporation in Philadelphia.
Nancy Campbell has received the the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2004 Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award, the Harlan H. Griswold Award of the Connecticut Historical Commission and the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, the Historic Preservation Award of Connecticut Preservation Action, the Pillar of New York Award of the Preservation League of New York State and the Raymond E. Baldwin Medal of Wesleyan University. She is a graduate of Hollins College and holds a master’s degree in architecture and urban studies and an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan.
Both of the Campbells are recipients of the DeWitt Clinton Medal from the New-York Historical Society, and in 2008 they jointly received the College of William & Mary’s Prentis Award for their contributions to the community.
The Campbells were married in 1959 and live in Williamsburg. They have four children and eight grandchildren.
Past recipients of the Churchill Bell:
- Abby M. O’Neill and the members of the Rockefeller family, 1992
- George V. Grune, Chairman and CEO, and the employees of the Reader’s Digest Association, 1992
- Ambassador and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg, 1993
- Joseph and June Hennage, 1994
- Bill and Gretchen Kimball, 2000
- Bob and Marion Wilson, 2002
- Ann Lee Brown and the late Charles L. Brown, 2004
- Jim Lehrer, 2011
- Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, 2011
- Gordon Wood, 2011
- Forrest E. Mars, Jr., 2013
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