Miriam M. Campbell Was Island Hospice Founder

Miriam McDonald Campbell died at Martha's Vineyard Hospital on July 21, following a short illness and complications from a fall. She was predeceased by her husband, Ford Campbell, who died in February, 2001. The Campbells had been residents of Chilmark since 1980, having retired to the Island from their previous home in Orono, Me.

Mrs. Campbell was a graduate of Tufts and the Yale School of Public Health, where she earned her M.P.H degree in 1933. She also studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

From 1958 through 1977 she served as the executive director of the Bangor-Brewer Tuberculosis and Health Association in Bangor, Me. She was a lifelong health educator and advocate for community health programs. Prior to 1958, Mrs. Campbell served as the public health officer in several towns in southeastern Massachusetts, including Middleboro, where she and her family made their home, Abington, Holbrook and East Bridgewater. Upon returning to Massachusetts in 1980, one of her first projects was to co-found the Hospice of Martha's Vineyard with the late Rev. Jack Wallace. During her last illness, when she learned that she herself was enrolled in the Hospice she helped to establish, she grinned broadly and said, "Perfect!"

In her long career, Mrs. Campbell taught at Smith College in Northampton, Westbrook Junior College in Portland, Me., and the University of Maine at Orono. In addition to her teaching activities, she served on numerous boards and committees at the local, state and national levels throughout her career. Among them, she served as president of the New England Health Education Association and president of the New England Chapter of the Society of Public Health Educators (SOPHE). Other board affiliations included the Health Council of Maine, the Maine College Health Association and the Maine Health Education Resource Utilization Consortium. Local boards she served on included the Family Health Center of Bangor, the Bangor Halfway House for Alcoholics, the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Eastern Maine and the Academy of Religion and Mental Health, which she chaired. She was treasurer of the Urban Renewal Authority of Orono, Me., and served on the school board in Middleboro. Most recently she has served for many years as a trustee of the Chilmark Public Library and as a founding board member and president of the Hospice of Martha's Vineyard.

In her early career, Mrs. Campbell was administrative assistant to the director of the Division of Maternal and Child Health in the Maine Department of Health and Welfare and the executive secretary of the Maine Wartime Child Care Committee during the World War II years.

Among her awards and recognition, she received the Health Education Award of Distinction from the New England Health Education Consortium, the Ira V. Hiscock Award from the New England Public Health Association and the Maine Maternal and Child Health Council Health Education Award. She is listed in Who's Who Among American Women and Who's Who in the East.

She is survived by her son, John G. Campbell of North Chittenden, Vermont, four grandchildren: Caitlin Ford Wrobel of Valley Village, Calif.; Nathanael Ford Murray of New York city, Megan Campbell of Chicago, Ill.; and Corinna Campbell of Bowling Green, Ohio; and two great-grandchildren: Campbell Ford and Aidan Wrobel. A daughter, Jane Campbell Murray, predeceased her in 1987.

A memorial service is planned for noon on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury. Memorial gifts may be sent Hospice of Martha's Vineyard Inc., P.O. Box 2549, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557, either for general support or earmarked for the Christopher Fund to assist hospice patients and their families with medication and supply purchases.