Winding Roads

From city hall in downtown Crawford, tucked between shops decorated in red, white and blue and a variety of George W. Bush paraphernalia, it is a winding few miles of road to the presidential ranch that serves as the Western White House.
Robert L. Campbell, BA '88, learned the twists and turns of this pavement well when, as the town's one-man maintenance department, he repaired water leaks, checked water meters and kept the sewer system in order. Today, he travels this road as mayor, leading the town of slightly more than 700 into its new identity as the home of President Bush.
Campbell's photograph has appeared in statewide newspapers and magazines and he's grown used to having the national media in town. He chuckles about being the only Democrat in city hall.
Yet Campbell, who became mayor at the urging of others, thinks of himself primarily as a minister, and he serves two congregations -- Perry Chapel United Methodist Church in Crawford and Waco's Mount Zion United Methodist Church.
He sees the roles of minister and mayor as complementary, one an extension of the other. "We're called to be actively involved in our communities, not just pastoring and being in the pulpit," Campbell says. "We have to take a social stance. In essence, being mayor is just like being pastor -- to serve everybody without any partiality."
Campbell didn't set out to be either.
Raised in Philadelphia, he graduated from high school in 1961 and joined the Air Force, spending six years in Vietnam and Thailand building bases and runways as a civil engineer. He was stationed in Abilene when he met his future wife, Vivian. In 1981, he retired from the military, married and settled in Vivian's hometown of Crawford.
"Even though I was born and raised in a big city, I knew I never wanted to go back," says Campbell, explaining he was hooked by summers he spent with his grandparents in tiny Warm Springs, Ga., the summer home of another president -- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Moving was the easy part. Employers told Campbell he either was too qualified or that he couldn't be hired without a college degree. He started his studies at McLennan Community College in Waco while tending to the maintenance needs of Crawford. The job, already a necessity, became more of one in December 1982 after his son, Quinten, was born legally blind and with a seizure disorder. The Campbells adjusted their schedules around Quinten's needs and sought the medical help he needed.
As Campbell worked with person after person to find the best care and help for his son, he kept hearing the same assessment -- that he was a natural at social work. He listened and entered Baylor's social work program in 1986 after finishing an associate's degree in business at the community college.
By the time he graduated from Baylor in 1988, though, he was feeling led toward the ministry. His increasing leadership at Perry Chapel, the church where his wife had grown up, prompted his interest. He earned his MDiv from SMU's Perkins School of Theology in 1993.
During that time, he also had begun to listen to city council members who told him he should run for a council seat. Campbell was elected to the council in 1990 and was named mayor pro tem in 1996. He finished out the term of a prior mayor before being elected to the post in 1999.
Then George W. Bush moved in, and what had been a sleepy little burg became a bustling byway -- at least when its famous resident is in town.
Campbell works to help Crawford make the most of the opportunities that come with having a president living nearby. He calls upon his childhood memories of Georgia and what he saw in that presidential hometown. He is an advocate for the presidential library being located at Baylor, and he encourages downtown development beyond the antique stores that now dot the main road of Crawford. Sometimes he is called out to find the water lines he still knows better than anyone else in town.
Occasionally at dusk, you can find him riding a golf cart through these quiet streets -- just to check on things, he explains. His life's path has been as meandering as the pavement he now patrols -- boyhood summers in Georgia, years of military experience abroad, long hours spent mowing Crawford lawns and fixing water pipes and days spent pastoring two congregations. Reflecting on his life's journey, he cites the 23rd Psalm:
"'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me,'" Campbell says. "No matter what I'm doing, no matter what I do in the past life or the present life, God is with me."