Remembering Cole Campbell
As you may have read, we lost another member of the News & Record family today.
Cole C. Campbell, a former reporter and editor here and at our sister newspaper, the Virginian-Pilot, in Norfolk, died in a single-car accident in Nevada.
The suddenness of all this is shocking and more than a little bit numbing.
At the time of his death, Cole was dean of the journalism school at the University of Nevada at Reno, a perfect job for a man with such a brilliant mind and such a passion for journalism.
Cole was only 53 and left behind a new wife and new daughter. JR offers a touching remembrance of his longtime friend and colleague over at his place. Here are my recollections:
Cole was nothing if not creative, and delighted in new angles and fresh approaches.
He was a superb editor, a deep thinker and a commanding speaker. He edited some of the News & Record's brightest talents, including Jerry Bledsoe and Greta Tllley.
He was scary smart, a Morehead scholar at Carolina, where I met him as an undergraduate.
But most of all he was the quickest wits I've ever met.
When we were students at Carolina, Cole desperately wanted to be editor of The Daily Tar Heel. When he lost the election his senior year, he stuck around another year for grad school, I suspect, simply so he could run again. He did and he won.
He was professorial even in those days, but make no mistake ... as much as Cole loved the classroom his true major was Daily Tar Heel.
School was something to do between editions.