Colin Campbell, former president and CEO of Colonial Williamsburg, dies at 88
Colin G. Campbell, former president and CEO of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, died Friday at age 88, the foundation announced.
Campbell saw the organization through the woes of the 2000s, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. He became president and CEO in 2000 and was in the role until 2014.
“Colin’s steady hand made an indelible imprint on Colonial Williamsburg, ensuring its survival as a national treasure and charting a course focused on preservation, education and civic engagement that the institution is following today,” Cliff Fleet, president and CEO of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, said in the announcement. “He will be remembered by all who had the pleasure of knowing him as a wise and compassionate leader and a dear, dear friend.”
Campbell worked to secure relationships with donors and partners during the uncertain times of his tenure, and from 2000 to 2013, the foundation reported raising $687 million from 1.7 million individual donors.
Under his leadership, the historic area benefited from various construction projects, including the reconstruction of Charlton’s Coffeehouse, the construction of Anderson’s Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury and the construction of the Market House. And then in his retirement, Campbell worked to fund the 65,000-square-foot expansion of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, which broke ground in 2017 and was unveiled in 2020.
Photos: Colin Campbell’s tenure as president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
“Colin’s legacy endures not only in the spirit of the Foundation, but in its physical landscape as well,” said Carly Fiorina, chair of Colonial Williamsburg’s board of trustees. “From the coffeehouse to the art museums, the Armoury to the new archaeology center — all of these buildings are testament to Colin’s commitment to this institution, and generations upon generations of visitors will reap the benefits of projects that owe their origin stories to him.”
Campbell also oversaw the expansion of programs focusing on the time leading up to and during the American Revolution. “The programs highlighted the diverse population and perspectives of Williamsburg residents including enslaved and free Black people, women, and people of different classes,” according to the release.
Born in 1935, Campbell graduated from Cornell University and the Columbia University School of Law before becoming the youngest-ever president of Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1970. He was with Wesleyan until 1988.
Sam Schaffer, [email protected]
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