Ex-teacher gave groups detailed reviews of books

4/26/2002

BOWLING GREEN - Dora Campbell, an elementary teacher who put herself through college and was known for presenting book reviews to local groups, died Wednesday in Heartland of Browning near Waterville.

She was 93 and had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease about 10 years ago, her son, Dr. Earl Campbell, Jr., said.

She taught third grade at Eagle Point Elementary School in Rossford after graduating from Bowling Green State University. But she had begun teaching much earlier and used the proceeds from those positions to pay for her own tuition.

In all, she taught for seven years before quitting to marry her college sweetheart, Earl Campbell, in 1934 when she was 25. He became the comptroller of the former F.W. Uhlman Co., a regional department store chain based in Bowling Green.

They had two children, almost 10 years apart, and Mrs. Campbell devoted her life to keeping a home and garden in Bowling Green, presenting elaborate meals - each with many choices of foods - and helping her family with their activities.

She invited her children's teachers to her home every year.

“The table was always beautifully set,” her daughter, Sally Young, said. “She had quite a flair for color and decorating.”

She was a Cub Scout den mother and Brownie troop leader when her children were young, and she taught children's Sunday school at First Methodist Church in Bowling Green in the 1940s and 1950s.

But she found time for her own interests as well. She read voraciously and for decades presented three or four oral book reviews a year to area clubs. Two of her favorites were on biographies of Dolly Madison and Abigail Adams.

She took volumes of notes at home in preparation for her presentations, which often lasted 30 minutes with questions and answers. But in front of a group, she almost never referred to them, her daughter said.

The Greek organizations that Mrs. Campbell had joined at Bowling Green State University were a lifelong interest to her and she was an adviser to such groups for years. As a student, she was a co-founder of Sorosis, a local sorority, and later became a member of Alpha Phi, a national organization.

Mrs. Campbell also was active in Eastern Star as worthy matron and mother worthy adviser of its Rainbow Girls. She was a member of the Women's Club in Bowling Green and a charter member of the Wood County Hospital Guild. She enjoyed flower gardening. Violets, bachelor's buttons, and ageratum were among her favorites.

She was born in Dayton and lived briefly in western Pennsylvania. But almost all of her childhood was spent in the Findlay area. She graduated with honors from Findlay High School, where she was active in sports, drama, and the French club.

She was the eldest of four children in the family of Olive and Charles Doyle, who was a superintendent at Standard Oil Co.'s Lima refinery.

Her husband died in 1969.

Surviving are her daughter, Sally Young; son, Earl Campbell Jr., and four grandchildren.

Services will be at 1 p.m. today in the Dunn Funeral Home, Bowling Green. The family requests tributes to the church or the Alzheimer Fund at the Medical College of Ohio.