In Memory
Carl "Butch" Edward Campbell, 66, died Tuesday (Aug. 4, 2009) at Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas.
He was born June 17, 1943, in Pampa, Texas to Edward E. and Genevieve "Jenny" (Armstrong) Campbell. He graduated from McCook High School in 1962.
He taught secondary education in Leadville, Colo., for 25 years. After his retirement, he moved back to the McCook community for a while. He later moved to Roswell, N.M., where he was living at the time of his death.
He was preceded in death by his parents and grandparents.
Survivors include numerous cousins and a host of friends.
Memorial services were at Carpenter Breland Chapel in McCook with the Rev. Mary Hendricks officiating. Inurnment was in Memorial Park Cemetery.
Friends may sign his book at the funeral home or send condolences to www.carpenterbreland.com.
Carpenter Breland Funeral Home of McCook is in charge of the arrangements.
Cheryl "Cheri" Myers (Beckenhauer) (1964)
I thought you might like to read this part of Butch's memorial service as Rev. Mary Hendricks had prepared for his friends and family. Cheri bCarl “Butch” Edward Campbell
Memorial Service
August 10, 2009
Officiant: Rev. Mary Hendricks
1 John 3:1-3 ? Psalm 121 ? John 6:37-40
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We are gathered here today as relatives and friends of Carl “Butch” Campbell to give voice to our grief and express our gratitude. Grief at our loss, at the empty space in our lives and gratitude for everything Butch meant to us and all that he continues to mean. It is a day for smiles and for tears. *1
Each person whose life intersects with our own can bring us some awareness of God, whether through that person or despite that person. Butch gave each of us reminders of God through the person he was, a gentle man with an eye for beauty. By most accounts Butch did not have an easy life. His father, a military pilot, died when Butch was a young boy. His mother Jenny, packed up the family and moved back to McCook where she had been raised and her parents still lived. Butch and his mother lived with her parents the Armstrong’s in their home on East 3rd Street for many years. For these reasons and many others as well, we can offer thanks today though it be through our tears. *2
When a death occurs and a memorial service is held, there is a way in which the universal and the particular come together. The person who has died is one particular person – with a name, a face, a life story. Yet at the same time, the deceased is not simply a singe individual but some how represents each of us, frail creatures of flesh. The poet-preacher John Donne put it this way – “Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Butch was fashioned by the hands of God and given the breath of life. His life was not always an easy life, just as our lives are not always smooth sailing. At the center of Butch’s being there was what scripture calls the image of God, the divine reflection in our human existence. It is in part because of Butch’s witness to that image that you are here today.
Our human nature is united to the divine in Christ Jesus; through Christ’s humanity ours is redeemed. There is nothing created which Christ has not redeemed. This is part of the universal – but what about the particular? What about Butch? Some among you lived with Butch in the intimacy of family life. Others among you were classmates and friends as he lived his life here in McCook, graduating with that somewhat raucous class of 1962. Countless young people knew and were deeply influenced by him because he was their teacher – a man so gifted in the art of teaching and admired by colleagues and students - that he was named Teacher of the Year at one point in his twenty-five year career as a public school teacher in Leedville, Colorado. Still others knew Butch as neighbors in this community following his retirement, witnessing his work on the renovation of the home he purchased on East 1st street. Finally, some knew him in his new home in Roswell, New Mexico, where he was living at the time of his death // ironically // a town with an Air Force Base, an environment that would have been familiar from his childhood days when his dad was still living. Yes, many of you know the unique features of Butch’s life because you lived that story with him. You know him far better than I. You knew of his love of beautiful things, his disappointments, his joys and his devotion to a small but close circle of friends.
So it is that we gather this day to thank God for Butch’s life and influence – for all he meant to us, and all he continues to mean. We join in prayer this day, not only for ourselves, but for Butch also, that this man who struggled with a disease may now rest with all the saints in the eternal habitations.
There are many adults living in Colorado and elsewhere who are better people because of Butch’s influence when they were younger. Jesus also took a practical interest in the lives of children. They responded to him naturally. His disciples saw this as a nuisance and tried to intervene, but Jesus told the disciples to stop and went on to indicate that the children, straight from the streets, were closer to the kingdom of God than they were. As Jesus proclaims in our gospel reading, “anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.” From what I have been able to learn of his life, it’s not too difficult to imagine Butch delivering a speech like that.
Christianity leaves no room for a god disconnected from the human condition, one who reigns on high, yet stays remote from our concerns. What Christianity means is that God knows this world of tears and death and sorrow, not as an observer, but from the inside, from the inside with a sensitivity that you and I cannot begin to imagine.
Jesus suffers on the cross, and his Father suffers the agony of watching his Son die. Mary, the human parent of Jesus, has her heart pierced by grief on Calvary. Certainly then, a sword of grief pierces the heart of Jesus’ other parent, his Father – and our Father – in heaven.
Death is strong. But God is stronger. Love finds a way, and divine love finds a way magnificently. The final word for Jesus is not tragedy, but new life. And the final word for Butch is not tragedy, but new life in Jesus. Go in peace, Butch.
*1 Charles Hoffacker, A Matter of Life and Death, p. 60.
*2 Charles Hoffacker, A Matter of Life and Death, 63.
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Donald Glaze (1955)
Butch was one of the kids from the McCook Y. I remember teaching him in gym and swim classes. One of the class of 1962 from MHS. He did add to life here in this world, teaching so many other students. He will be missed.Don Glaze