Obituary for Ilo Gene Campbell
Ilo “Gene” Campbell, 86 ,of Arlington, MA passed away peacefully on January 9th. Beloved husband of Concepcion “Pury” Campbell, he leaves behind his children Susan “Gena” Campbell of Arlington, Linda Campbell and her wife Sarah Doremus of Deer Isle, ME, Cristina Brigham and her late husband Thomas Brigham of Plymouth, MA , Robert Campbell and his wife Elizabeth “Betsey” Campbell of Duxbury, MA, his brothers Jerry Campbell and his wife Barbara of Oklahoma City, OK, Michael Campbell and his wife Linda of Albuquerque, NM, Leslie Campbell and his wife Nancy of Tempe, AZ. , his grandchildren Michael, Ana, Patricia and Elizabeth Quinn, Meghan and Matthew Brigham, Nathan, Grace and Noah Campbell, and many nieces and nephews.
Gene was born in Parsons, Kansas, the son of the late Ilo Gerald Campbell and Hope Davis. After leaving Rice University, Gene was drafted into the United States Navy during the Korean War. His professional career began in 1958 at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory where he was assigned to the Satellite Tracking Division in San Fernando, Spain. He served as one of the Smithsonian’s observers using the Baker-Nunn camera in the very early days of the space program. It was while in San Fernando that he met his beloved wife Concepcion “Pury” Castellanos and they were married in Cadiz in October 1959. In 1961, Gene and Pury returned, with their first born, to the United States where Gene continued his career at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, as a mathematician developing algorithms for use on early computers to process data from the Satellite Tracking Program. With the progression of technology, Gene was promoted to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Computation Facility working on the design and implementation of the Observatory’s first computer network and retired as a senior systems analyst in 2000. Over his more than 40-year career with the Smithsonian Institution, Gene witnessed the entire space program, from the first satellites and earliest computers, to the Chandra X-ray Space Telescope, to today’s modern distributed network of computers.
A connoisseur of food, wine, and classical music, Gene may have appeared shy to some but to his family and friends he was warm, loving, and the consummate science nerd keeping track of his family’s daily life, in journals and on hundreds of scraps of paper, plotting and analyzing, and developing linear regressions of his daily body temperature, the battery life of every clock and appliance in the house, bus arrival times, and when to turn the mattresses over. He was a true scientist, a fan of hiking and cross-country skiing which he passed on to his children and grandchildren, a nerd above all others, and while his measurements and attention to detail were ignored when his children were young, they are now grateful to be left with his documented, gentle, tracking of their lives.
A Funeral mass will be held at St. Eulalia’s Church, 50 Ridge St., Winchester, Saturday, March 16th at 10 AM.
Gene was born in Parsons, Kansas, the son of the late Ilo Gerald Campbell and Hope Davis. After leaving Rice University, Gene was drafted into the United States Navy during the Korean War. His professional career began in 1958 at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory where he was assigned to the Satellite Tracking Division in San Fernando, Spain. He served as one of the Smithsonian’s observers using the Baker-Nunn camera in the very early days of the space program. It was while in San Fernando that he met his beloved wife Concepcion “Pury” Castellanos and they were married in Cadiz in October 1959. In 1961, Gene and Pury returned, with their first born, to the United States where Gene continued his career at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, as a mathematician developing algorithms for use on early computers to process data from the Satellite Tracking Program. With the progression of technology, Gene was promoted to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Computation Facility working on the design and implementation of the Observatory’s first computer network and retired as a senior systems analyst in 2000. Over his more than 40-year career with the Smithsonian Institution, Gene witnessed the entire space program, from the first satellites and earliest computers, to the Chandra X-ray Space Telescope, to today’s modern distributed network of computers.
A connoisseur of food, wine, and classical music, Gene may have appeared shy to some but to his family and friends he was warm, loving, and the consummate science nerd keeping track of his family’s daily life, in journals and on hundreds of scraps of paper, plotting and analyzing, and developing linear regressions of his daily body temperature, the battery life of every clock and appliance in the house, bus arrival times, and when to turn the mattresses over. He was a true scientist, a fan of hiking and cross-country skiing which he passed on to his children and grandchildren, a nerd above all others, and while his measurements and attention to detail were ignored when his children were young, they are now grateful to be left with his documented, gentle, tracking of their lives.
A Funeral mass will be held at St. Eulalia’s Church, 50 Ridge St., Winchester, Saturday, March 16th at 10 AM.