Elizabeth Campbell (television)
Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell | |
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Massive Resistance | |
Spouse | Edmund D. Campbell |
Children | 3 |
Margaret Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell (December 4, 1902 – January 9, 2004) was an American
Early and personal life
Elizabeth Pfohl was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to a Moravian minister and a music teacher. She had a sister, Ruth, who survived her. Pfohl received her high school education at Salem Academy where she graduated in 1919. She then attended Salem College, a related institution, and received a bachelor's degree in education in 1923. She later received her master's degree in education from the Teachers' College, Columbia University.[2]
Pfohl married widower and trial lawyer Edmund D. Campbell Jr. in 1936, and moved with him to Arlington, Virginia, where she helped to raise his two children. The couple also had three children together. Campbell survived her husband, and the twins H. Donald Campbell and Rev. Benjamin P. Campbell and their sister Virginia Campbell Holt survived her, as did nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.[3]
Educator and school board chair
Pfohl returned to her high school to begin her education career, teaching girls at Salem Academy and, after two years, she began teaching college level courses. She then moved into education administration, as dean of
In Arlington, as she raised her family, Campbell realized that Virginia's public schools had very real problems, in part due to underfunding, as well as policies of racial segregation which had been added to the state constitution early in the century.
In 1947, Campbell was elected to the school board of Arlington County, Virginia, which was the first directly elected school board in Virginia. She was the first woman on a school board in the state of Virginia.[4] While on the board (beginning in 1948, and including after her re-election in 1951), Campbell was instrumental in adding fine arts classes, as well as comparable facilities for African-American and white students. She also led efforts to secure higher teacher salaries and build new schools in the growing city.
Campbell served as the school board's chair from 1950 until 1956, when Arlington's elected school board was replaced by an appointed board during the state's
On January 19, 1959, separate decisions of the
WETA and Public Broadcasting
Campbell had been intrigued by the power of television since the 1940s, believing that it could be used for educational purposes. In 1952, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized Channel 26 to be designated for educational television and, in 1953, the Greater Washington Educational Television Association (GWETA) was created. Campbell joined the GWETA in 1956, initially as vice chairman, and became president a year later. While she was the GWETA president, Campbell worked hard to raise funds for a local educational TV station in Washington, DC. In 1961, an application was sent to the FCC to open WETA and, on October 2, the station went on the air.
The station initially was on the air only during daytime hours on weekdays but, by 1966, it was on the air 86 hours a week, including weekends. WETA-TV today is on the air 24 hours a day and is the third largest public television station in the United States. In 1966, Campbell helped to expand WETA into the radio market, with a WETA radio station going on the air in 1970 at 90.9 FM, which plays mostly classical music and NPR news programming.
Post-WETA work
In 1971, Campbell retired from the GWETA and WETA-TV as its president, but held the position of vice president of community affairs, which she held until she died.
Death and legacy
On January 9, 2004, Campbell died in Arlington after a brief illness at the age of 101. The Virginia State Senate passed Joint Resolution No. 174 noting "with great sadness the loss of a unique and irreplaceable citizen".
References
- ^ "Working Out Her Destiny". Library of Virginia.
- ^ a b c "Working Out Her Destiny - Notable Virginia Women - Campbell". Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ "Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell's obituary". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ a b Jones, Mark (January 9, 2014). "10 Years Later: Remembering Elizabeth Campbell". Boundary Stones: WETA's local history blog. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
- ^ "WETA's Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell Awarded Public Television's Highest Recognition". Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 30 June 2015.
- ^ "Senate Joint Resolution No. 174". Virginia General Assembly Legislative Information System.
- ^ "'It's Time to Talk About the Names of Our Schools,' Says Arlington County School Board".
- ^ "Margaret Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell, Marker C-72". Marker History. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2013-01-17.
- ^ "Power in the Public: The Life and Legacy of Elizabeth Campbell exhibition at Shirlington Library".
External links
- Oral History: Interview with Elizabeth Campbell, Arlington Public Library
- Elizabeth Campbell Papers