Early in 1963—a year that would end with the assassination of President Kennedy and begin years of tumult over war and racial issues in America—Montgomery County Republicans gathered to honor one of their own.
Assemblyman Donald A. Campbell was guest of honor at a January testimonial dinner dance at St. John’s Hall on Amsterdam’s Park Hill, now the home of the Elks Lodge.
Born in Amsterdam in 1922, Campbell played high school basketball and in 1963 still held the record for the quarter mile sprint at Amsterdam High School. Campbell went to Columbia University where he was an honor student and basketball player. He also played soccer, hockey and softball with Amsterdam teams, including the champion soccer team, the Bigelow-Sanford Eleven.
Campbell enlisted in World War II and became a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. After the war, he graduated Albany Law in 1948 and practiced law in Amsterdam. He and his wife had four children. They lived on Locust Avenue and then Golf Course Road.
His first run for public office was in 1950 when he was elected to the State Assembly. At his testimonial, he had been an Assemblyman for 12 years and would serve another five years in that office. Then as now the economy loomed large in government. Campbell chaired the Assembly committee on the state’s economy and was vice chair of the economic development committee.
Campbell was a vestryman at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church and St. Ann’s rector the Reverend Robert Haven delivered the invocation at the testimonial. Among the speakers were Reid Hill businessman Stephen Slezak and Supreme Court Justice Felix Aulisi. Reverend Stanislaus Gospodarek of St. Stanislaus Church gave the benediction. The Seventh and Eighth Ward Republican clubs sponsored the dinner.
The Campbell testimonial toastmaster was Republican City Court Judge Raymond Zierak, whose family provided the program for the event. Zierak’s daughter, Marilyn Zierak Betz, recalled that her father frequently spoke at local gatherings. He would sit at their dining room table writing speeches and jokes on a yellow legal pad.
After 1963, Campbell was reelected to the Assembly two more times. In 1968, though, he was defeated in the Assembly race by Amsterdam Democrat Mary Ann Krupsak, an attorney whose family operated a drugstore on Reid Hill. After some time in the Assembly and State Senate, Krupsak served three years as lieutenant governor during the administration of Hugh Carey. She then challenged Carey unsuccessfully in a Democratic primary for governor.
Campbell’s widow Phyllis said her husband never tried again for the Assembly. He did serve for a time as GOP chairman of the Fourth Judicial District. He continued to practice law and opened a branch law office in Lake Pleasant. He died in 1992.
LYNCH’S MIDDLE NAME
A frequently asked question is what does the middle initial stand for in the name Wilbur H. Lynch. Henry was Lynch’s middle name, according to research some years ago by late Amsterdam historian James Marks. The former high school, now middle school in Amsterdam is named for Lynch. Lynch’s father was named Henry and Wilbur was his grandmother’s maiden name.
A graduate of Oneonta Normal School for teachers, Wilbur H. Lynch completed his education at Harvard. He taught on Long Island and was high school principal in Amsterdam for six years before going to Mexico City as superintendent of American schools there. He became an Oneonta college professor in 1915.
Lynch took the job as Amsterdam school superintendent in 1922. In 1944, he was elected mayor for one two-year term. Lynch, who lived on Guy Park Avenue in Amsterdam, died in 1948 at age 79. He is buried in Windsor, Broome County.
