By Candy Woodall
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

William V. Campbell grew up a block away from the new education and recreation center that now bears his name at Barrett Elementary School in the Steel Valley School District.

Long before he was an Ivy League graduate, father, college football coach and Silicon Valley mogul, Mr. Campbell was a Homestead student and athlete — just last week celebrating the 52nd anniversary of Homestead High School’s class of 1958.

Many of the fields and facilities that Homestead students use today are named for the Campbell family.

William V. Campbell Athletic Field is named for his father, a veteran of World War I, mill worker and a superintendent of schools of the former Homestead School District.

A middle school gymnasium and athletic room at the Carnegie Library of Homestead are named for his late brother, James J. Campbell, a former Navy commander and fighter pilot who, like the younger William Campbell, was a standout athlete at Homestead high.

The new William V. Campbell Education & Recreation Center at Barrett Elementary is named for the boy who grew up watching the Homestead Grays with his dad and who played football and volleyball and ran track in high school.

It’s for the Mon Valley kid who moved to New York City to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees from Columbia University, where he later coached football for six seasons.

And it’s for the local benefactor who has donated about $20 million to his hometown school for athletic facilities, classrooms and technology with what he’s earned as an executive and consultant with some of the most recognizable companies — Apple, Google, Kodak and Intuit, which is best known for its Quicken software.

[ Full article available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10238/1082712-55.stm ]