Nardi Reeder Campion '38
Week of February 5, 2001

Some women have it all. Not that satisfaction and rewards are mysteriously, arbitrarily granted to them - rather, they make the very best of their natural gifts. Nardi Reeder Campion, freelance writer by profession and a "life force" by reputation, works in several spheres, all with great joy and success.

She was born Narcissa Pillow Reeder in June 1917, in Hawaii. An "army brat," she spent her elementary-school years in Kansas. She came to Wellesley after graduating from high school in the Panama Canal Zone. Campion majored in English composition and called her senior novel No Guts, No Glory, a title considered by at least one of her English professors to lack good taste. Still, from that moment, her writing career was launched. After college, she taught English at Newport News (Va.) High School and married her Harvard beau, Thomas B. Campion, in 1941.

Fast-forward to Campion's 25th Reunion book: "The twenty-five years since I left Wellesley have been, I now realize, filled with books and children." By then, the Campions had four sons and a daughter. Campion continued, ". . . after my marriage, I began to do some writing. In fact, I finished one book in the maternity ward and am sure it is easier to have a baby than a book, though both are nice."

Campion's books, all of which were released by major publishers, attest to her interest in people and in various aspects of United States history:

• Ann The Word: The Life of Mother Ann Lee, Founder of the Shakers (republished as Mother Ann Lee, Morning Star of the Shakers)
• Bringing Up the Brass - The Life of Sergeant Marty Maher of West Point (later made into the movie "The Long Gray Line," directed by John Ford for Columbia Pictures)
• Casa Means Home
• Kit Carson, Pathfinder of the West
• Look to This Day! The Lively Education of a Great Woman Doctor: Connie Guion, M.D., written with Rosamond Wilfley Stanton (Dr. Guion was a Wellesley graduate in the class of 1906)
• Patrick Henry, Firebrand of the Revolution
• The West Point Story, written with her brother, Colonel Red Reeder

Campion's work is often seen in widely distributed publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, American Heritage, Gourmet, Sports Illustrated, Yankee, and many others. One of her best known pieces was published in the Boston Globe Magazine (July 17, 1983) as "Wellesley '38: A Different World, but in Many Ways the Best of Times". The essay begins, "College reunions are a competitive sport. At early reunions, classmates compete with each other about jobs and incomes; at the 25th it's spouses and children. Later they brag about their grandchildren and vacation homes while regarding, with envy or glee, classmates' waistlines, hairlines, wrinklelines. Everybody hates the streamlined and loves the slobs."

In this eminently quotable piece, which is quotable throughout, Campion further observes, "In 1938, when we were graduated, we were before the pill and the population explosion which, inexplicably, went hand in hand - so to speak. We were before television. Before penicillin, polio shots, antibiotics, and frisbees. Before frozen food, nylon, Dacron, Xerox, Kinsey. We were before radar, fluorescent lights, credit cards and ballpoint pens. For us . . . a chip meant a piece of wood; hardware meant hardware; and software wasn't even a word."

Five years later, Ann Landers included a letter from Campion in her syndicated feature. After identifying the 1983 Boston Globe piece, Campion wrote, "My creation has been widely pirated and often with other bylines. (All work and no plagiarism makes a dull essay.) I gave that talk at my 45th reunion at Wellesley College. . . . (Please, Ann, not Vassar.) My topic for our 50th reunion this June is 'Fifty Years of Sex.' Stay tuned."

Campion's writings often mention Wellesley College. Her esteem, gratitude and enduring love for the College are also demonstrated in her alumnae organization work. She was president of the Alumnae Association (1976-1979), and in 1998 received the Association's Syrena Stackpole Award, an honor conferred each year in recognition of dedicated service and exceptional commitment to Wellesley. When Campion became president of the Alumnae Association, the Wellesley News interviewed her, asking if she considered herself a feminist. "Yes!" she said emphatically. "When I was little, my mother taught me to stand up in my playpen and shout 'Votes for Women!'"

In her writing for the popular press, Campion's wry comments about her family (she now has eight grandchildren) suggest that she has savored her role as wife and mother. Being a free-lance writer has allowed her to create her own work-place wherever her husband's career took him, and since 1978, shortly after he joined the development office at Dartmouth College, she has resided in Hanover, N.H. She is a columnist for the area's Valley News, and an invitation for dinner and conversation at her home is prized. Though recently widowed (Thomas Campion died last November), when asked if she would consent to being a Person of the Week, Campion immediately replied, "For Wellesley College, I will do anything."

Written by Sally Linden