George Porter Campbell was born August 26, 1938, at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing and died August 23, 2026, three days shy of his 88th birthday. He graduated from Sexton High School, was further educated at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, where he learned the law. He returned to Lansing and married the love of his life, Paula Skarstad Campbell, an early-childhood educator who found her calling in the Haslett Public Schools. Together, they made their home in East Lansing for many years.
George was preceded in death by his parents, Henry Clay and Alice Porter; his sister, Sarah Louise; and his granddaughter, Fyfa Campbell Dawson. He is survived by Paula, his wife of 62 years; his son and daughter-in-law, Andrew and Na Young; his daughter, Sarah; and his grandchildren, Clay, Henry, Orla, and Eres.
George served the law throughout his life and loved his family with equal devotion. He especially enjoyed cooking shrimp for his fellow Ingham County attorneys at the annual shrimp dinner. He sang in the Plymouth Church choir, rang the Salvation Army bell at Christmas, and was dedicated to the Lansing Exchange Club, where he had served as treasurer and president. A great-nephew of Charlie Bennett, the star catcher for whom Bennett Park in Detroit was named, George threw the very last pitch at Tiger Stadium in 1999. George was also a lifelong ferroequinologist—a lover of railroads and trains—with the model trains, books, and posters to prove it. He and Paula spent every weekend they could at the family cottage on Lake Michigan. By day they scanned the horizon for freighters; at dusk, George was fond of saying, “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight.”
Sunset and evening star: George has crossed the bar.
