St. Lawrence Neighbourhood activist dies

Joan Campbell March 3 at St. Michael’s Hospital, was a Publisher, Historian, Author, Professor, Translator, Editor

By Bulletin Staff –

Longtime St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association (SLNA) member and community advocate Joan Campbell, 83, passed away peacefully on March 3, 2013 at St. Michael’s Hospital after complications following neurosurgery. A memorial service for friends and family will be held at a later date.

Johanna Stolper was born in Berlin, Germany on June 22, 1929. Her father, Gustav Stolper was an economist and publisher. Her mother, Toni, studied law at the University of Berlin and was a journalist.

The family moved their Weimar salon to the United States in 1933 where Johanna was raised in Connecticut. She attended a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania before attending Harvard where she graduated with her first BA from Radcliffe College.

She then chose to go to Oxford where she gained a second BA and met her future husband Dugal Campbell, son of a Scottish doctor and nurse. After working in publishing in New York City, Joan married Dugal in 1954.

The couple moved to London and in 1957 to New Zealand. Three years later they moved to Kingston, Ontario. There they raised 4 children (Alister, Anna, Beverly and David). During this time Joan acquired a PH.D from Queen’s University and began her academic career.

In her very full life Joan was a Publisher, Historian, Author, Professor, Translator, Editor and a truly wonderful Mother. An expert in Modern European History, she taught at Queen’s University, University of Toronto, UWO and Ryerson University.

In later life she was an active member of the Academy for Life Long Learning and an outspoken supporter SLNA. Her network of friends would use common terms to describe her intelligence, her inquisitiveness, her passion for ideas and her love of debate. Joan is survived by her husband, her four children, eight grand children and her older brother Max.