With sadness, the Paulist Fathers announce that our brother, Rev. Donald C. Campbell, C.S.P., entered eternal life on Monday, September 18, 2023, at the Mary Manning Walsh Home in New York, NY.

He was 93.

Fr. Campbell was a member of the Paulist community for 69 years and a priest for 61 years.

Donald Colin Campbell was born March 10, 1930, a son of John A. Campbell and Mary MacDonnell Campbell of Port Hood, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The Campbell family, including four sons and two daughters, lived on a farm. 

In a profile at the time of his 50th ordination anniversary, Fr. Campbell recalled that his family attended church together and prayed the rosary while kneeling on the kitchen floor.

“There was no television unless you showed up,” he recalled. “It was a time for us to be together as a family. It had a great effect on me.”

Fr. Campbell was an elementary school teacher for two years before he left his native Nova Scotia and moved to Toronto.

It was on a Lenten retreat in 1953 that Fr. Campbell first met the Paulist Fathers then based at St. Peter’s Church in Toronto.

He then attended Holy Thursday Mass at St. Peter’s and heard the preaching of Fr. John Bradley, C.S.P. “He was a renowned preacher and word craftsman,” Fr. Campbell said. “I was tremendously impressed.” 

The parish then connected him to Fr. Henry Flaut, C.S.P.

“He was a kind man, a simple man, a holy man,” Fr. Campbell said. The two met each month for about 10 months.

“At that point, [Father Flaut] rolled in a portable manual typewriter and said, ‘I think you should apply [for the Paulist novitiate],’” Fr. Campbell recalled. “He asked me all the questions and typed them on the page. He asked me to look it over and sign it.”

The Paulists accepted his application and sent him to St. Peter’s College in Baltimore to study Latin in 1954.

He entered the Paulist novitiate on September 6, 1955, with 31 other men. After his novitiate year, he began studies at St. Paul’s College, the Paulist seminary in Washington, D.C., which was then a degree-granting institution.

He made his First Promises to the Paulist Fathers on September 8, 1956, and his Final Promises on September 8, 1959.

He was ordained a priest on May 11, 1962, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City.

After his ordination, he served a summer assignment at Good Shepherd Church in New York City followed by a pastoral year at the Paulist Center in Boston and an additional year on the Catholic Information Center staff in Boston.

From 1964 to 1969, he served as an associate pastor at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City.

In 1969, he became the Paulist vocation director, serving in that role through 1975.

From 1975 to 1978, he was the Paulist Fathers’ director of development.

In 1978, he became a parish pastor for the first time, at Old St. Mary’s Church in Chicago.

“It was a whole new ball of wax for me with a busy downtown parish with lots of Masses, confessions, sacramental work, and 10 weekend Masses,” he recalled.

In 1986, became pastor of St. Lawrence Church and Newman Center in Minneapolis, MN.

After four years as pastor, he served for an additional year as an associate pastor at St. Lawrence before returning to New York City where he would spend the next 11 years in administrative roles.

These included serving as superior of the Paulist Motherhouse from 1990 to 1998, Paulist Fathers treasurer from 1999 to 2008, and as an assistant and treasurer at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle from 2008 to 2010.

In 2010, Fr. Campbell entered senior ministry. He lived at the Motherhouse until a recent move to the Mary Manning Walsh Home.

“I have enjoyed every assignment I have had,” said Fr. Campbell. “I have had the opportunity to see the United States and Canada. It has been a wonderful life, and the pastoral work I have done has let me touch the lives of many people. These have been happy years.”

In addition to his brother Paulists, Fr. Campbell is survived by one sister, Sandra MacKinnon, as well as nieces and nephews.

FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for Fr. Campbell at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City.

A viewing will be held one hour prior to the Mass.

Fr. Campbell will be buried in the Paulist section of St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery in Oak Ridge, NJ.