About Us
The alumni of Campbell Memorial High School are being summoned back to
their roots to reconnect with their alma mater by joining
the Campbell Memorial High School Alumni Association, for the benefit of the
school, its graduates, the community and, yes, themselves.
In a sense, during this return trip home, alumni will be following in the
same pioneering footsteps taken by their courageous parents and
grandparents, who immigrated to America and Campbell to seek a better life
for themselves and their children.
Today's returning alumni will be giving back to the community by pioneering an organization that will help rebuild the high school and community to their former prominence. And indeed, Campbell once was a very prominent city of steel that has produced thousands of successful graduates.
Many of our forefathers went to work for the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, which helped to make Campbell an important city in America. The income from the mills through wages and taxes helped to build the community and its schools. Campbellites knew that education was the key that could unlock the door of success and provide their children with a piece of the American pie. Consequently, families embraced the schools and emphasized education and learning to their children as a way to progress and build a career and win a piece of the American dream, regardless of race, creed or color. Most of the parents and their children had to sacrifice and work and pay for their college educations themselves, with only modest or little scholarship assistance. But they found a way to do this because they knew how important it was.
As a result, for about 80 years, Campbell Memorial High has graduated more than 12,000 students including hundreds who went on to become doctors, dentists, engineers, scientists, teachers, lawyers, businessmen, tradesmen and countless other important occupations. These alumni collectively compose Campbell's “city away from home,” scattered all across the nation and the world. They remember their parents' sacrifices and the role that Campbell Memorial, their teachers, friends and the community in their lives.
Most of these alumni would like to reconnect with their alma mater and remain a part of it, and to give back to the school in some way to insure that it will continue to prosper and graduate individuals who can in turn improve the community. This is being accomplished by the creation of a comprehensive alumni association---the Campbell Memorial High School Alumni Association---which will provide the mechanism and a bridge to reconnect alumni and their resources to their school. It's time for Campbell Memorial to rediscover its alumni, to capitalize on this immense, collective treasure and in essence cash in on the investment made by their parents, themselves and teachers that helped to create so many successful people.
Alumni can make a significant difference in their former high school and community, even in absentia, by helping to build and become a part of an organization that will attract interest, money, expertise and business from members, and build a monetary fund for college scholarships and other school projects. Such a fund will continue to grow through the years as more graduates and alumni join the organization. And sooner or later, some enterprising alumnus or alumni will create or help to create or attract another industry or industries in Campbell, just like the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. This new industry will help Campbell to reclaim its former glory, perhaps not as another steel center but in a variety of other high-tech industries and in new technology that will continue to be created by inventors, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs who will expand or launch new companies.
Education is the key to producing graduates with high values and character and intelligence and with innovative and entrepreneurial skills who can make these profound changes in their community. A comprehensive alumni association can be a valuable catalyst to make this happen, by attracting money and expertise and resources that will mushroom through the years. For example, the Salem High School Alumni Association, founded 125 years ago, now has an endowment of about $7,500,000, and has given almost $3,500,000 in college scholarship money to 1,632 students. That is the kind of financial success that the Campbell Memorial Alumni Association would like to achieve in the years ahead, after having been formed on Jan. 10, 2007. If Salem can do it, so can Campbell, and we have set our course toward reaching this objective.
So we invite and urge all Campbell Memorial alumni--”A city away from home”--to make the trip back home in spirit if not in body and rejoin the cause to help pioneer the rebirth of their alma mater and home town. This will be one of the greatest and most lasting gifts and legacies that you can bestow to the school and community---and to your forefathers and yourself.