[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 62 (Wednesday, April 18, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E770-E771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO MR. JOHN CAMPBELL

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BART STUPAK

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 18, 2007

  Mr. STUPAK. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of my 
constituents who has been of tremendous service to the economic growth 
in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Mr. John Campbell has spent over thirty 
years helping to foster economic growth and development in the Eastern 
Upper Peninsula.
  A lifelong Michigan resident, Mr. Campbell was born and raised in 
Brown City, Michigan. In 1956, he graduated from Central Michigan 
University with a major in biology and minors in Chemistry and Physical 
Education. His graduate studies were taken at Michigan State University 
and Wayne State University from 1958 to 1963.
  In early 1969, Mr. Campbell began his career at the Eastern Upper 
Peninsula Regional Planning & Development Commission as an economic 
planner. As early as his very first grant request, Mr. Campbell 
demonstrated his resolve and commitment to bringing funding for 
projects to the Upper Peninsula. His first grant request came from 
Kinross Township, which was seeking funding for a recreational 
proposal. The plans for the proposal, which were sketched upon a 
tattered, torn and coffee stained brown paper bag, included the 
construction of a lighted racetrack, a grandstand and an underground 
walkway. At the time, the Department of Natural Resource's Recreation 
Grant Program did not cover any of these projects. Despite this 
challenge, Mr. Campbell toiled tirelessly and within the next five 
years, each of these projects was brought to completion.
  As the Assistant Director of the Regional Commission from October 
1970 through August 1973, Mr. Campbell directed and coordinated the 
planning, research, and grant efforts of the staff. During his early 
career at Regional Planning, Mr. Campbell was principally in charge of 
the Overall Economic Development Plan, which was produced with grant 
funding from the Economic Development Administration.
  Mr. Campbell was also an integral figure in finding ways to reuse the 
Kincheloe Air Force Base. When Kincheloe Air Force Base was closed in 
the 1970s and it was announced that 10,000 service people would leave 
the region, it was expected that the local area would undergo a massive 
economic hit. However, thanks in large part to Mr. Campbell's hard work 
and creativity, Kincheloe Air Force Base and surrounding base sites 
were modified to be used for other purposes, creating additional 
economic activity. Within 12 years after the closing, four prisons and 
one work camp were installed at the base, along with 12 industrial 
companies and 15 retail businesses. In all, the local tax base had 
doubled, and the civilian payroll created by the new ventures had 
reached $110 million.
  While perhaps best known, redevelopment of Kincheloe Air Force Base 
was by no means Mr. Campbell's only project. Over his more than thirty 
years of work on economic development in the Upper Peninsula, Mr. 
Campbell was involved in nearly every major project in the immediate 
region. Among the projects he worked upon, Mr. Campbell helped oversee: 
the Newberry Streetscape/Infrastructure Project; road improvements near 
Hessel Block Company and Maples Sawmill CDBG; Tahquamenon Scenic 
Heritage Route Management Plan; a study of I-75; Easterday Avenue 
Interstate Bridge Crossing Study; DeTour Village Water System 
Improvements; Eastern Upper Peninsula Regional Solid Waste Management 
Plan; Portage Township Land Use Plan; the establishment of the Chippewa 
County Industrial Park and Whitefish Township Plan.
  Madam Speaker, throughout his distinguished career of service, Mr. 
Campbell has established a reputation as a consensus builder who can 
bring together different parties in the community to achieve shared 
results.

[[Page E771]]

Residents throughout the Eastern Upper Peninsula describe Mr. Campbell 
as a quiet, but determined planner who knows the specifics of every 
project down to the last detail. Never one to seek credit for a 
particular project, he is known for his quiet demeanor, moving projects 
along to completion, but always humbly sharing the acclaim with those 
around him.
  After over thirty years of service, Mr. Campbell is retiring. This 
weekend, residents of Chippewa County, Sault Ste. Marie and the Eastern 
Upper Peninsula will come together to honor Mr. Campbell for his many 
years of labor on behalf of economic growth in the Upper Peninsula. As 
this humble, hardworking man enters well-deserved retirement, I ask 
that you, Madam Speaker, and the entire U.S. House of Representatives 
join me in congratulating Mr. John Campbell and in wishing him and his 
wife, Geri, all the best for many years to come.

                          ____________________