Board of Visitors minutes :: June 3, 1966 :: University of Virginia Library

William McCutcheon Camp, Visitor of the University of Virginia since 1 March 1960 and one of Virginia's industrial and civic leaders, died on 20 April 1966 at the age of 66. After receiving his preparatory education at Woodberry Forest School he attended the University of Virginia from 1919 to 1923. In that same year he was employed by the Camp Manufacturing Company and from 1925 until 1955 was vice president of the Company which later merged with Union Bag and Paper Company, of which he was a member of the board of directors. He was named Franklin, Virginia's "First Citizen" in 1963.
Mr. Camp was deeply interested in the cause of his Alma Mater, serving on the Board of Managers and as a Life Member of the Alumni Association. During his service on the Board of Visitors he was a member of the Buildings and Grounds Committee and the Finance Committee. In 1965 he became Chairman of the Finance Committee.
The Visitors assembled on this 3rd day of June 1966 wish to pay tribute to Mr. Camp's contributions in the service of his community, his State, and his University. He participated actively in the deliberations of the Board and was continuously working for the best interests of the University. To Mr. Camp's widow, Mrs. Edith Clay Camp, and two sons, William M. Camp, Jr. of Franklin and Leon Clay Camp of Charlottesville, we extend our most profound sympathy and express to them our conviction that they will see in his work a worthy testimonial to his efforts in the University's behalf.
The Secretary is hereby directed to send a copy of this resolution to the widow and children of Mr. Camp and to incorporate in the permanent minutes of the Board this expression of our grief at his passing.
At the request of the Rector the following memorial was ordered to be incorporated in the minutes:
WILLIAM McCUTCHEON CAMP
Tribute by the Reverend Ira D. Hudgins, Pastor of Franklin Baptist Church, at Funeral Services on April 22, 1966.
I CANNOT, ON THIS OCCASION, add another word of comfort beyond what has been expressed in the passages of scripture which have been read to you from God's Word. The last word, after all is faith in God and trust in his promises. I pray that you may have that faith and trust today, and will say with Paul, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."
WHILE NO WORDS OF MINE can add peace to his ashes or sweetness to his sleep, I beg your indulgence to pay a personal tribute of affection and esteem. Knowing William McCutcheon Camp as I did, I am sure that he would want me to say that if there was any goodness in his life it was due to the women who supported him -- his wife who loved him, his Aunt Lizzie Savage who adored and inspired him, and his mother, whose unquestioning, abiding sense of God's wisdom was a tower of strength.
FROM HIS EARLIEST CHILDHOOD he struggled against physical handicaps that would have daunted the ambition of a lesser man. With courage and persistence he quietly fought the battles of his weakness of flesh and refused to allow them to rob him of the enjoyment of life and creative labor. His achievements, therefore, are all the more remarkable.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON ONCE SAID: "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded." By this measure Bill Camp's life was a success.
HE WAS POSSESSED OF A GENIUS for friendship. There was a tenderness that drew us as a magnet. There was a humaneness and humbleness about him with which we identified. There was an interest and a concern which we could not help but reciprocate. He loved, and was loved, by the youngest child because he was a child at heart and by men of all ages and of every race because he was sensitive to human needs and aspirations. Sam Foss's words might have been his own:
Let me live in a house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by,
The men who are good and the men who are bad, As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, Or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road And be a friend to man.
TIME WOULD FAIL ME if I tried to recite the variety of his interests and the areas of his influence. He was an industrial leader of competence and ability. He was a farmer who loved the science of the soil, the laboratory of the barn, and the miracle of growth with the returning seasons. I have never known a man with a kinder feeling for animals or of greater interest in the conservation of natural resources.
I BELIEVE THAT AFTER ALL the great interests of his life are added up, apart from his devotion to his family, the one we will long remember was his manifest interest in his community. He did much to develop our athletic and recreational facilities. He provided able leadership in the economic development of this area and was whole-hearted in his participation in the program of the Chamber of Commerce. An educated man, he ever had the schools in his mind, was distressed by our apparent division in the county, was interested in the cause of higher education, happily served on the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, and encouraged and assisted many an aspiring young student. While he never sought public office, he was politically responsible. While he never sought a public honor, I am confident he was grateful when the citizens of Franklin recognized his contribution by electing him as First Citizen in 1963.
FINALLY, I wish to give my personal testimony of his Christian faith and loyalty to his church. His faith was simple in its trust and catholic in its sympathies. Except for a few years spent in South Carolina, he was a member of this church all his life. He served on the Board of Deacons on a number of occasions and was chairman of the Board in 1951. His was the guiding hand that saw the erection and beautification of this house of worship to the glory of God. He was a good and faithful steward of the material assets God so generously showered upon him. His fine philanthropy in educational, missionary, and benevolent causes will continue to bear fruit across the years. His faithfulness in attendance and participation in our varied ministry will long remain as an inspiration to us all.
HE HAS LEFT A VACANCY of vast proportions. However keenly we now feel the loss of his counsel and activity here, our thought enlarges to something of the measure of his new experience, as we say with reverent joy the words of a hymn he loved to sing:
Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, By the cross are sanctified; Peace is there, that knows no measure, Joys that through all time abide.
(Privately printed for distribution among the friends of the late Mr. Camp by one who was proud to be included in that number.)