Constitutional legacy: Bob Campbell praised for his work on the 1972 Montana Constitution | Local News

Lisa R. Parker

HELENA — Tributes poured in Wednesday for Bob Campbell, who as a delegate to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention wrote the document’s provisions for the suitable to privacy and the correct to a clean up and healthful atmosphere.

Campbell died Tuesday evening in Missoula. He was 81 and died of purely natural results in following struggling from dementia.

He also co-authored with delegate Mae Nan Ellingson this broadly praised preamble to the state structure:

“We the people today of Montana grateful to God for the silent elegance of our state, the grandeur of our mountains, the vastness of our rolling plains, and wanting to increase the good quality of life, equality of possibility and to protected the blessings of liberty for this and long run generations do ordain and create this constitution.”

Jon Ellingson, a retired Missoula lawyer, praised the suitable to privateness that his close friend Campbell added to the constitution. It reads: “The appropriate of personal privateness is essential to the very well-getting of a free of charge society and shall not be infringed upon with out the demonstrating of a compelling condition interest.”

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“That is so profound and has so a lot of implications to public policy that I hope our court can flesh out in larger depth in the coming many years,” Ellingson said. “With the upcoming obstacle to abortion rights, it is a bulwark in opposition to the infringement of a woman’s correct to privateness to make her own choices about her overall body.”

Right after originally failing, Campbell lastly succeeded in placing the proper to a clear and healthful environment in the constitution.

“What an enduring legacy he’s remaining to the state,” said Anne Hedges, director of coverage for the Montana Environmental Facts Heart. “Very couple people get to have that level of affect on a point out and its foreseeable future. Soon after the Anaconda Co. had experienced its way with the condition of Montana, it was so important for the delegates to stand up for the environment and make it a fundamental proper that we all reward from.”

Through the debate, Campbell contended that the environmental provision the greater part experienced supported was too weak. He urged delegates to envision going for walks down the streets of their hometowns and being requested by another person what they experienced finished for the natural environment.

The constitutional conference transcript reveals Campbell telling fellow delegates: “Under the the greater part proposal, you will have to appear them in the eye, understanding you put in all the funds to come above below to do something they were being fascinated in, and say, ‘Yes, we the individuals in Montana at the convention made the decision to have a single.’ What is he likely to say? ‘You have determined to have an setting. Nicely, isn’t that wonderful. We currently obtained just one.’”

After Campbell’s before try failed, convention president Leo Graybill sent a take note to Campbell at his desk urging him to try yet again. This time, late at night, it handed.

Rick Applegate, who was the investigate staffer for the convention’s Invoice of Legal rights Committee, said Campbell had a way of generating persons at ease conversing about these concerns because  “one, his temperament and two, the person was wicked intelligent.”

“He had a depth of comprehension of these troubles that helped him have the day,” Applegate explained.

For the future 50 several years right after the Montana Structure was narrowly ratified by voters, Campbell turned its major promoter and advocate. He handed out hundreds, if not countless numbers, of copies of the constitution, released by the secretary of state’s business, to college students, legislators, seniors, people today on the road and any individual else. He autographed all of them.

“The techniques in which he advocated and elevated the structure are famous and mirror his electrical power, his determination and his creativeness,” explained Evan Barrett of Butte, a historian who serves on the government committee of the Montana Constitutional Convention Celebration Committee.

“No a person beloved the Montana Constitution and did much more to boost its knowledge than Bob Campbell,” retired lawyer Mae Nan Ellingson claimed.

Campbell on a regular basis spoke about the constitution to university and college lessons on Legislation Day.

Anthony Johnstone, a professor who teaches constitutional regulation at the College of Montana, recalled in his forthcoming book about the Montana Structure conference Campbell in a classroom convened in a truck trailer near Boulder.

“It was my very first Law Working day, with the Equivalent Protection Clause as our subject matter, and I did not know he would be my co-instructor until finally he showed up and started passing out signed copies of the Montana Structure,” Johnstone wrote. “There was minimal for me to do but to sit again and listen to Bob’s stories provide the conference to lifetime for the students, the trainer and me. A lot of periods considering the fact that, Bob has finished the identical in my classroom, and just like these Jefferson County Higher University college students, the law pupils became quick fans of this not likely constitutional celebrity, lining up for autographs just after course.”

Campbell was an early supporter of legalizing cannabis and defended some people today arrested on drug charges.

Campbell also had a quirky facet. He normally roamed the halls of the Capitol and downtown Missoula and Helena distributing humorous bumper stickers and buttons, copies of nationwide political cartoons and phony $1 million payments. He structured debates at Bannack, Montana’s to start with territorial money.

“Bob arranged (forcefully enlisted) a group of us to debate each summer at Bannack Days irrespective of whether women of all ages really should have the vote,” claimed former legislator Dorothy Bradley. “It was, of class, one of the most hilarious periods we at any time experienced. And, of program, the girls usually shed given that we could not vote — until the dance hall girls joined us and threatened the gentlemen.”

Robert J. Campbell was born Dec. 21, 1940, to James D. and Verna Beck Campbell in Sidney. Just after completing large university in Sidney, he acquired levels in pharmacy in 1963 and law in 1967, equally from the University of Montana. He utilised to hand out gag business cards that claimed, “For your capsules, and wills, see Campbell.”

Campbell had a personal regulation apply in Missoula and later worked in Helena on the legal employees of the Montana Office of Labor and Business and as a listening to officer for the point out Workers’ Payment Court. He returned to Missoula when he retired.

He married Mary Ann Marsh in 1963. The couple later divorced. They experienced two small children, T.J. Campbell, senior customer account supervisor for Course Motion Money of New York Metropolis, and Elizabeth Campbell, an affiliate professor of record at the University of Denver.

He experienced two grandchildren.

A memorial service is set for 2 p.m. June 17 at Yard Town Funeral Property in Missoula. It will adhere to an party in the Capitol in Helena on June 15 and 16 to rejoice the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Constitutional Convention and the ratification of the constitution.

Buddies are hoping to increase cash to establish at the College of Montana a “For This and Upcoming Generations” award for remarkable writing on Montana constitutional legislation by a graduating regulation student. If ample funding is acquired, the award may well be endowed. Checks may be mailed to the UM Foundation, P.O. Box 7159, Missoula, MT 59807 or money paid out on the internet at SupportUM.org. Notice in the feedback area that the gift is in memory of Bob Campbell and could be specified to the “For This and Long term Generations Award.”

This tale is printed with the permission of the Montana Absolutely free Push. The original tale can be accessed right here.

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