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Molly Sanderson Campbell '60
Campbell was a Mathematics major who began working as a computer programmer in California right after graduation. Though she enjoyed programming, she soon realized "that teaching would be ultimately more satisfying" and joined the faculty of the Dana Hall School in Wellesley. Campbell, whose father was a college professor, thought she also wanted to be a scholar, and in the fall of 1964 she began graduate study at Harvard in the history of science. Campbell earned a master's degree and continued at the doctoral level, completing work for the Ph.D. "ABD" (all but dissertation). By 1970, having spent several years balancing studying, teaching and advising at Harvard with teaching Calculus in the summer Chemistry Institute at Wellesley, Campbell was married and the mother of an infant girl. During her daughter's earliest years, Campbell shifted to volunteer activities but in 1974 was lured back to teaching Mathematics, this time at "The Open College" at Pine Manor College. She enjoyed teaching and mentoring women who were returning to school at a non-traditional age and was named Assistant Director of the program in 1975. A year later, she was the Open College director. In these same years, she developed and taught Mathematics courses at the Radcliffe Seminars Program, for women returning to school or making a career change. Campbell returned to Wellesley in 1978 as Dean of the Class of 1980 and member of the Mathematics Department. Her position at Pine Manor had been half-time, "from the beginning to the end of an elementary school day," she subsequently explained, in Wellesley's CE News. "I shared many of the constraints of women in the program and, like them, often wondered where this new career was leading me. However, when I learned that a class dean's position was suddenly open... at my alma mater, the answer seemed clear." At Wellesley, she combined the teaching of Mathematics with an
array of activities in the realm of student affairs.
Campbell's transition from Class Dean to Dean of Students dovetailed with the Class of ‘84's graduation. Interviewed by Realia in the interval before formally undertaking her new role, Campbell said, "As Class Dean I'm used to direct contact with 500 students. I will have to divorce myself from 500 one-on-one student appointments and work at a level where I feel that by getting the right people together I can help 2,200 students indirectly." One of the ways in which Campbell developed the scope of the deanship was by living on campus. She believed, as quoted in the Wellesley News, "that the Dean of Students assumes responsibility for all aspects of student affairs, including health services and residence life, which makes the responsibility a continuing one that does not end when the working day ends." Looking back on her tenure as Dean of Students, Campbell mentions particular pride in shaping and implementing programs in support of diversity. For example, she was instrumental in launching both the Summer Enrichment Program and the Cultural Advisors' initiative. She also guided the development of the Center for Work and Service and expanded the mission of the Learning and Teaching Center. It was apparent that Campbell loved her work as Dean of Students and that students welcomed her leadership and advocacy. In 1997, however, she told the Wellesley News, "I had been thinking that if I was going to do anything else I better do it now...Once I made that decision, 20 years seemed like a nice package." And so Campbell retired from Wellesley in 1998 amid accolades from those who knew her and her work. President Diana Chapman Walsh, after listing the many new and enhanced programs credited to Campbell, stated, "She really has shaped the way we think about student services at Wellesley College."
Campbell left her on-campus housing – and her 24/7 deanship - in 1998 for a renovated antique home on the Charles River, in nearby South Natick. She and her husband, Bob, who as an Emeritus Professor of English (Boston University) had "shouldered car pools and cooking" to facilitate her Wellesley career, are now both savoring the freedom of retirement. Long an avid gardener, Campbell has become a principal in Hen and Chick Gardens, a subsidiary of Alison Campbell Design, owned by her daughter, who has a degree in horticulture and garden design. Hen and Chick Gardens' work is evident in most of the window boxes in the Vil. According to Campbell's 40th Reunion Book essay, "the joy I feel swinging up into the truck with my daughter to begin a job...has no equal." Written by Sally Linden
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Molly's
Pub, in Schneider Center, was named for our Person of the Week:
Molly Sanderson Campbell '60.
In
1984, President Keohane named Campbell Dean of Students. The accompanying
news release highlighted some of her achievements at the College:
"Dean Campbell currently serves as Assistant to the President of
Wellesley College, Director of the College's Affirmative Action
Program, and Dean of the Class of 1984. She chairs the Executive
Committee of the College's Administrative Council. She has also
chaired the College's Committee on Residence Life and co-chaired
the committee that initiated a double-degree program between Wellesley
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In
the months between Campbell's announcement and her actual retirement,
a "new social alternative" was being explored. College Government
had surveyed the student body and learned that a student pub in
Schneider Center – a concept favored by Campbell – had
strong support. And what better name than "Molly's Pub"? Campbell
told the Wellesley News reporter, "I was flattered. I hoped that
it was a vote of confidence about my commitment to students and
student life. I'm not sure what my colleagues will think when they
hear that they've named a pub after me."
