Gerard Campbell

Who is Gerard Campbell?

The Rev. Gerard John Campbell, S.J. was the 45th President of Georgetown University serving from 1964 to June 17, 1968. He succeeded the Rev. Edward B. Bunn, S.J., as Georgetown’s president.

Campbell was born in St. Mary's, Pennsylvania, on August 26, 1919, the son of Nicholas J. Campbell and Claire Zimmerman of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. In 1939, Campbell entered the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits. He was ordained as a Jesuit Catholic priest in 1951.

Campbell completed a bachelor's degree in Latin and his licentiate's degree in philosophy from West Baden College, a now defunct Jesuit seminary in Indiana. He studied a "Jesuit curriculum" at Loyola University Chicago, which included theology, history, science and literature. In 1957, Campbell received a doctorate in history from Princeton University. He initially taught history at Loyola University Maryland until he joined Georgetown University as vice president in 1963.

Father Campbell held the post of executive vice president at Georgetown at the time of his appointment as President in 1964. Campbell, who was 45 years old when he became president, was one of the youngest presidents in Georgetown's history. He was also the first President of Georgetown University to hold a doctorate from a non-Catholic university, as he had received a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1957. Campbell's Princeton degree led the Washington Post to conclude at the time that he was a "new breed of Jesuit priest whose style might be described as Ivy League Catholic."