Viola W Camp

June 9, 1912 – October 13, 2012

Viola White Camp, “Vi”, age 100, passed away peacefully on October 13, 2012 at

the Fairfax Retirement Community, Fort Belvoir, VA with family members present. She was

was born in Winthrop, MA June 9, 1912. She is the eldest child of Richard Julius and Viola

Cochrane White. Her father immigrated from France and became a naturalized citizen in

Rhode Island during 1904. He was a sea captain and veteran of World Wars I and II in the

Naval Reserve. She had two younger brothers, Norman and Richard; and a younger sister,

Eleanor. Both of her brothers were naval aviators during WW II. Norman, graduated from the

Naval Academy during 1939 while Richard, at age 23, was the youngest individual to receive

a Master Mariner's License in the Port of Boston, also during 1939. Her sister, Eleanor,

married an FBI Agent. Viola lived in and around Boston during most of the early part of her

life which included Winthrop, Sherborne, Natick, and Wallaston. She attended Natick

Elementary through eighth grade and Natick High School for ninth grade. She then attended

Quincy High Schools for grades ten through twelve. After graduation from High School she

completed one year of Finishing and one year of Secretarial School at the Katherine Gibbs

School on Commonwealth and Newport-Borough Streets in Boston.

During the early 1930s, Vi worked for one year in training as a secretary to a Vice

President at the Second National Bank of Boston after which she briefly worked as a

stenographer for another Vice President of a bank at the Hotel Statler Building in Boston

Subsequently, she became a secretary to Admiral Richard E. Byrd in his capacity as the

Chairman of the National Economy League which was concerned with radical reduction in

government expenditures until he decided to go back to the Antarctic on his second

expedition and the organization was dissolved. She then served as Secretary to the Director

to the Quincy Automobile Association from 1935 to 1938 after which she moved with her

family to Brooklyn, New York.

Vi met Robert Hyde Camp, “Bob” while he was a cadet at the United States Military

Academy at West Point through a friend while Bob was on a Army-Harvard football trip to

Boston. Vi had been living in Boston at the time. They were married n the USMA Catholic

Chapel June 1939, the day after Bob graduated.

While Bob served as an Artillery Officer in the Aleutian Islands and Italy during WWII,

she and their two young children: Robert, Jr., born in 1940, and Alice, born in 1942, lived

primarily in California and Brooklyn until he returned from overseas. After WW II, her son

Robert, Jr. died and then she gave birth to three more children: Roberta, Richard and

Elizabeth.

Prior to her marriage, Vi was a member of the Wollaston Women's Club Juniors, she

held office in the Quincy Junior Women's Club and was also a member of the Quincy

Community Players. As a military wife she was active in the lives of her children and in

volunteer work. She had been active in the Parent Teacher's Association, was a Room

Mother, Assistant Girl Scout Leader, and Den mother for cub scouts. While Bob was assigned

to the Headquarters of the Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM) as Deputy Chief of Staff

for Personnel located at Ent Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, CO, she served as General

Chairperson of the first prom at Horace Mann Junior High School. She participated in the

Red Cross and Civilian Defense. She had been Chairman of a Mother's Club which she

organized and Chairman of Hospital Volunteer in the ARADCOM Officer's Wive's Club. She

served as Recording Secretary for the Woman's Board of the St. Francis Hospital, Historian

and then elected Secretary of the Rampart Toastmistress Club. She also performed hospital

volunteer work at two hospitals in Colorado Springs. Years later, she briefly did hospital

volunteer work at Mount Vernon Hospital while living near Mount Vernon, VA after Bob retired

from the Army.

During retirement Vi and Bob traveled to Bermuda, the Caribbean Islands, Nova Scotia, South Africa, Egypt, Hawaii and South America while residing at Waterside Estates near Mount Vernon, VA for 24 years. They celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary at the Fort Belvoir Officer's Club, Fort Belvoir, VA during 1989. During 1990 she and Bob sold their house and moved to The Fairfax Retirement Community where they celebrated their 65th during 2004. Bob passed away during January 2008 after 69 years of marriage and by the time she passed away, she had resided at The Fairfax for 22 years. They had five children: Robert Jr.(deceased), Mrs. Alice Preece (Gene) of KY, Mrs. Roberta Reisinger (John) of PA, Mr. Richard Camp (Cheryl) of VA, and Ms. Elizabeth Camp of OR; four grandchildren (one deceased); eight great grand children and three great-great grandchildren. As a Centenarian, she outlived all her younger siblings. She had a full life and will be greatly missed by her family. A funeral service will be held for her at the Fort Myer Chapel at 10:45 am, December 14 followed immediately by internment at Arlington National Cemetery where her husband, Bob, is buried.