Columbia Athletics Mourns the Loss of Bill Campbell '62CC '64TC
4/18/2016 1:59:00 PM | General
Columbia University Athletics mourns the loss of Bill Campbell '62CC '64TC, who passed away at the age of 75 yesterday evening.
“We are terribly saddened to hear about Bill's passing,” said Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education Peter Pilling. “Bill was a wonderful person who has touched, and will continue to touch, so many lives. There was no one more proud to be a Columbian than Bill and he showed it with his unwavering support to the University community throughout his life.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.”
“I cannot begin to compose a statement that fully expresses the grievous sense of loss we have experienced early this morning when Bill Campbell passed away,” said Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger. “Bill was a beloved alumnus, football coach, trustee, former Chair of the Trustees, and, above all, a friend and source of boundless joy and counsel to everyone who knew him. Columbia will forever remember Bill.”
“We are losing an amazing human being,” Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Al Bagnoli said. “Bill was a guy that inspired so many people, not just in football and athletics, but throughout the entire University. It's devastating news for everyone and he's been an absolute inspiration to us all. Bill represented all that is good in the world and he will be missed tremendously as a friend, mentor and colleague.”
A four-year student-athlete, Campbell captained the 1961 Ivy League Championship football team, which was inducted into the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010, and earned All-Ivy League accolades as a senior. In 1963, Bill and a group of football and rugby alumni founded the Old Blue Rugby Club. He returned to Columbia to coach the Columbia Football team for six seasons between 1974 and 1979.
After his coaching stint, Campbell embarked on a legendary career. He was vice president at J. Walter Thompson, an advertising agency based in New York, and then moved on to become general manager of consumer products for Kodak Europe. After Kodak, he joined Apple Computer in 1983, and rose to the level of executive vice president; he went on to found and served as president and CEO of Claris Corporation, a spin-off software developing company created and owned by Apple in 1990. Campbell assumed his role as chairman of Intuit, the maker of Quicken, QuickBooks, and Turbo Tax, in 1998 and served as its CEO until 2000. As an executive, Campbell's marketing and strategic acumen helped build Claris, Apple, and Intuit alike into remarkable Silicon Valley success stories. Later, his advisory roles as a director at Apple, Google, and others established him as the “Coach of Silicon Valley.”
He joined the University Trustees in 2003 and was named Chair just two years later. He led the University through one of the most dynamic eras in its history – one that included the planning and groundbreaking of the new Manhattanville campus, the opening of the University's Global Centers, the successful completion of the record-setting Columbia Campaign and The Columbia Campaign for Athletics: Achieving Excellence, the creation of the Columbia Alumni Association and many more initiatives.
In 2009, recognizing his influence and love of the game of football, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame announced that its highest honor, the former Draddy Trophy, sometimes referred to as the “academic Heisman,” would be renamed the William V. Campbell Trophy.
Because of his tremendous leadership and passion for Columbia Athletics, the University dedicated the Campbell Sports Center in his honor in October 2013. The state-of-the-art 50,000 square foot athletics headquarters at the Baker Athletic Complex on West 218th Street became the first new athletics building for Columbia since the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Physical Fitness Center was built in the mid-1970's.
The Campbell Sports Center incorporates offices for varsity sport programs, a strength and conditioning center, a hospitality pavilion and study areas and lounge space for student-athletes.
In fall 2014, the athletics program retired uniform number 67 – the number Campbell wore as an offensive lineman and linebacker for the 1961 Ivy League Champions - for all 31 of Columbia's varsity teams. At the 2015 Varsity C Celebration, the athletics program introduced a new award, the William V. Campbell Performer of the Year to be presented annually to the top male and female student-athletes of the academic year.
His legacy at Columbia Athletics—the countless lives he touched, his special relationships with coaches and student-athletes over the years, his unwavering support of the varsity sports programs and of rugby, and his unyielding commitment to making Columbia Athletics a championship-caliber program—are today, and will continue to be unmatched. His loss is felt deeply on every level.
Campbell is survived by his son Jim '04CC '08SIPA and daughter Maggie '13CC, wife, Eileen Bocci and her three children, Matt '13CC, Kevin and Katherine, and his former wife Roberta.
