Remembering Randolph B. “Mike” Campbell

Abstract

Remembering Randolph B. “Mike” Campbell Andrew J. Torget (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Randolph B. Campbell pictured with the manuscript for Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State, which was published in three editions by Oxford University Press. Photo courtesy of the Campbell family. [End Page 290] Among Texas historians, there was no one quite like Randolph B. “Mike” Campbell, the first Chief Historian of the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), who died on August 13, 2022. Born on November 16, 1940, in Charlottesville, Virginia, Campbell grew up on a hardscrabble farm in Nelson County, Virginia, the only child of John Landon and Virginia Lyon Campbell. He attended the University of Virginia, where he earned his Ph.D. in history in 1966. In 1962, he married Diana Snow, and together they raised two sons, James Landon and Jonathan Clay. Mike and Diana moved to Denton, Texas, in 1966, when Mike took a position in the history department of North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas, usually shortened to UNT). During the fifty-three years that followed, Campbell became one of the most prominent faculty at UNT, where he held both the Regents Professorship and the Lone Star Chair in Texas History when he retired in August 2019. Campbell’s prominence centered on his pathbreaking work on the southern heritage of Texas and his focus on exploring the lives of everyday people living through momentous times, which transformed how modern historians understand the Texas past. His first single-authored book, A Southern Community in Crisis: Harrison County, Texas, 1850–1880 (Texas State Historical Association, 1983), became such an iconic work on the Civil War that it was reissued thirty years after its original publication. Even more influential was An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821–1865 (LSU Press, 1989), which traced the deep influence [End Page 291] of slavery in the development of nineteenth-century Texas and remains the most authoritative work on the subject. His numerous other scholarly works—including books on the era of Reconstruction and the life of Sam Houston, as well as dozens of scholarly articles—culminated in the publication of Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State, first issued by Oxford University Press in 2003, one of the most authoritative histories of the state, which is now in its third edition and serves as a standard in college classrooms. For his many achievements, he was honored by colleagues with numerous awards and a series of influential positions in historical associations and societies. He served as President and inaugural Chief Historian of the TSHA, as well as editor of the Association’s Southwestern Historical Quarterly. He was a Fellow of the TSHA, the Texas Philosophical Society, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the East Texas Historical Association, among others. The University of North Texas bestowed its Eminent Faculty Award on Campbell in 2012. Yet Campbell’s greatest legacy may have been his teaching and mentoring. Virtually no one could hold a lecture hall in rapt attention like Campbell, and his massive sections of U.S. history were frequently oversubscribed with eager students. His local history seminars and famous biography classes were must-take courses for graduate students. Throughout his career, moreover, he selflessly offered his time, insights, and support to students, colleagues, and friends, always working in tireless dedication toward helping others achieve their best. I recognize now how much I was a beneficiary of Mike’s deep knowledge and generous heart. When I arrived at UNT in 2009, I ended up with the office next to Mike’s, which turned out to be one of the most fortunate alignments of my professional life. Mike and I both liked to arrive at the office early, which meant that weekday mornings usually began with me sitting in his office asking Mike about teaching, departmental politics, and anything else bewildering me. Even more valuable was the reality that any time that I had a question while writing my first book, Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800–1850 (University of North Carolina Press, 2015), I only...