Stanley James Campbell

Stanley James Campbell was born March 15, 1930, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Hurley R, and Lucille (Augustine) Campbell. Stanley’s father was in the military and was transferred stateside when Stanley was a young child. They settled in San Francisco and Stanley attended school there. Before graduating from high school, Stanley decided to join the Army. He served from 1949 to 1954, during WWII, and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, then Germany and finally Korea. Once discharged from his service, he returned to the bay area where he bought a fishing boat. Unfortunately, the boat was not seaworthy, and his dreams of becoming a commercial fisherman never materialized. Stanley took work as a taxi driver in San Francisco for almost ten years. During this time, he met and married Joan Gosser. Although the union would ultimately end in divorce, they were blessed with two sons. In 1969, Stanley would move on from driving taxi to driving delivery truck for produce and various goods for the remainder of his career. Stanley met and married Carol Melton in 1981 and shortly after they moved to Colorado where he lived for about 15 years. His marriage to Carol also ended in divorce, and he eventually moved back to California, settling in Santa Rosa for several years with his son Ken and family. One of Stanley’s passions was prospecting, and he left Santa Rosa to travel the Sierra Nevada mountains to hunt for gold. Eventually he would settle in Crescent City, California in 1994, where he lived for over a decade before relocating to Oregon in 2006 to be near his sons. Stanley lived in the Stayton area the rest of his life, except for a short time when he lived in Astoria. Stanley was a fantastic cook and created everything from scratch. His boys have fond memories of visiting grandparents in San Francisco and heading to Fisherman’s Warf to buy fresh seafood for their dad to cook. Stanley also loved to go fishing and crabbing himself when he could. He even tried his hand at brewing beer and making wine. Stanley was a hard worker, very intelligent, and loved to read and learn about subjects that interested him. Although he was a bit of a loner and an introvert, Stanley was quite the storyteller and loved sharing his acquired knowledge with others. The only subjects off limits were politics and religion, because Stanley would vehemently defend his beliefs and opinions whether you liked it or not. He loved his family and took great pride and joy in his grandchildren, building model airplanes and hydrogen rockets with them. Even though he a hard time expressing how he felt, his family knew that he loved them. Stanley passed away on October 13, 2019, at the age of 89. He was definitely one of a kind and will be greatly missed by those he leaves behind. Stanley was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his two sons Brian Campbell and Ken (Karen) Campbell; five grandchildren Alexandra (Jacob) Fay, Kenny (Bre Lee) Campbell Jr., Kendra Campbell, Jewell White, and Crystal Campbell; and two great-grandchildren Braedyn and Bennett. A family celebration of his life will be held at a later date.