PULLMAN, Wash. — A 1951 Washington State University graduate in mining engineering, who spent all but a few months of his profession career as a geophysicist, has received WSU’s Alumni Achievement Award.
Ralph B. Campbell was recognized for “distinction as a student leader and Pacific Coast Conference boxing champion, for continued loyalty and support of his alma mater and for corporate leadership in the oil industry.”
The award was presented Sept. 18 in Spokane at a reunion of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity.
After graduating from WSU, Campbell spent 10 years overseas in France, North Africa and Australia working in the oil industry. He returned to the U.S. in the late ’60s, then accepted a position with Texaco of Canada in Calgary, where he now resides.
Campbell was in charge of all eastern Canada oil exploration for Texaco, when he retired in the late 1980s. He has been active in the Heart Fund of Calgary and has been a board member, a coach and an official for Little League baseball in Canada.
He resided in Pullman for a short while in the 1930s, while his father, Ralph, was obtaining a doctorate in agriculture at WSU before becoming director of the Western Washington Agriculture Experiment Station at Puyallup, where Campbell attended high school.
As a member of coach Ike Deeter’s Cougar boxing team, Campbell captured the Pacific Coast boxing title at 112 pounds in 1948. For his heroics, he earned the name “Mighty Mouse.”
Campbell was a member of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity and Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the mining honorary; chairman of the Rally Committee; and vice president of the Interfraternity Council. He was a Distinguished Military Student in the Army ROTC program; a member of Crimson Circle, senior men’s scholastic and service honor society; and was voted one of the Outstanding Seniors.
Since 1970, Campbell holds the distinction of being the season football ticket holder who lives the greatest distance from Pullman. He is a lifetime member of the WSU Alumni Association and purchased one of the personalized floor tiles in the Lewis Alumni Centre.
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