I am so pleased today to see my dear friends Sam Campbell and Joe Watkins receive the E Duane Jones Service to Alumni Award today. Sam is accepting the award on behalf of his legendary dad, John Campbell, who flew missions over Germany in World War II and was shot down over Germany, escaped back from POW camp to England and flew more missions. The future President George Herbert Walker Bush was a friend of John’s during the war. John distinguished himself in later life for his tireless service to Middlesex, and as a partner in the Wall Street law firm of Curtis, Mallet, Prevost.. Sam was a big brother to me in our Harvard years. I will never forget encountering him late one night in the Lamont Library studying away. He told me that “you had to keep at it.” Sam followed in his father’s footsteps as a faithful member of the Middlesex Alumni Board.
Joe went on from Middlesex to the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton Theological Seminary, and from there to a galaxy of careers which span from aide to Senator Dan Quayle, theological liaison in the White House to President George HW Bush, venture capitalist, consultant to the brilliant artist Whitney Houston, Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, pastor of his church, and host of a television show about politics and service called State of Independence. While doing all that, he served multiple terms as a Middlesex Trustee. Like John, he passed down a tradition of Middlesex service to his daughter who is now a trustee, as well as a legacy with two grandchildren who are now Middlesex Alumni, and hopefully more to come. Joe is accompanied by many family members today including his sisters and brothers that attended various New England prep schools and Harvard, and Yale, that I have also been privileged to know. His father Leroy Watkins Sr was the principal of a New York City high school who saw the opportunity to place his children into prominent independent schools.
Again my heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to the Watkins and Campbell families for all they have done for our school. Duane Jones
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