Dr. Kenneth L. Camp

He was born September 15, 1924 in Monica, Illinois to Charles H. and Frances I. Rader Camp.

Surviving members of his immediate family include the following: Charles F. Rolinski of Groveland; Tanna Jean Leighton (Ralph) Krey; Michaele (Tom) Webber; Christopher Shepard; Connor Webber; Michael (Kerry) Leighton; Chase Leighton; Kendall Leighton; Paige Leighton; Marc (Heather) Leighton; Noelle Leighton; all of Princeville; several cousins including Joan Camp Bitner and Fonda Camp Maddox, both of Monica; Sue Ann Meredith of Round Lake and Howard (Bernita) Meridith of Chenoa and “adopted” family members Mary Ann Rapp of Dunlap, Marlene Miller of Washington, and Charles Lowell Hale of Groveland. Also surviving are three stepsisters: Wilma (Dean) Duckworth of Princeville; Eleanor (Glenn) Nordwall of Peoria, and Shirley (Jack) Hansen of Mundelein.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one sister, Mrs. Bernadine C. (Robert) Camp Jacobs of Groveland; a stepsister, Mary Derrick of Morton, and cousin, Ray Howser of Groveland.

He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He attended Princeville Community High School and Dickinson Business College. He held B.A., M.A., and Ph.D Degrees from Illinois and Colorado Universities.

He taught for three years at Centennial Junior High School in Decatur, Illinois, and later thirteen years at Woodruff High School in Peoria. Here, he later served as Chair of the Speech and Theatre Department. His students at Woodruff brought home the first Illinois State High School Association’s Speech and Theatre SWEEPSTAKE Championship ever won by Peoria Schools.

In the 1950’s Neve Harms, Superintendent of the City of Peoria’s Recreation Department, appointed Dr. Camp as the Recreation Department’s director of Peoria Elementary Schools’ After-School Dramatics program. Superintendent Harms, also, directed Ken to organize a Board of Directors to assist in establishing a Peoria Community Children’s Theatre. As Director of Drama, Ken directed for many years the Recreation Department’s Children’s Theatre Summer productions presented on the Glen Oak Park’s amphitheater stage.

In 1968, he moved to Illinois Central College where he taught for three years before his appointment in 1971 as Chair of the Division of Creative Arts. He served in this position for twenty-five years until he retired in 1996.

He served as President of the Central Illinois Arts Consortium, composed of all Central Illinois private and public colleges and universities. He also served as President of the Peoria Area Arts and Sciences Council, and served on Lakeview Museum’s Board of Trustees.

During Mayor Carver’s term of office, he served on the Mayor’s City of Peoria Arts Commission.

In 1982, as one of several individuals, he took a leading role along with Eugene Holmes and Bob Rice in organizing and founding of the Greater Peoria Area Crime Stoppers Program. Here he served as both Vice-President and President, and remained a Board member until his death.

In 1984, he took the lead in the founding of the Illinois State Crime Stoppers Association where he served for many years as President of the State organization, and later, as State Chair of its Certification Committee.

In 1992, the Kiwanis Club of Peoria selected him as the recipient of the 1991 Ray E. Neumann Tri-County Citizen of the Year Award.

In 1993, Camp was named recipient of the Prescott E. Bloom Award.

He served on the Board of Trustees for Public Broadcasting – Channel 47; the Illinois Arts Council Community Development Panel; the Illinois Arts Council’s Presenters Panel; Peoria Players as a production director; the Peoria Civic Opera Board; Cornstock Theatre, both as a production director and charter member; the Peoria Civic Ballet Board of Directors; the IHSA Board of Activities Advisors; Chairman of Woodruff High School’s Regional American Field Service Board, and the Peoria Symphony Board of Directors.

Crime Stoppers International at its Region V Conference held in Naperville, Illinois, and consisting of Crime Stopper Board programs in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio, presented its Regional V Dick Tracy’s Crime Stopper Board member-of-the-Year Award to Ken Camp. This award was presented by the cartoon’s current cartoonist.

In September 2001, the Illinois Chapter of the FBI National Academy Associates presented its’ first “Medal of Distinction” Award to Camp for his contributions to Illinois law enforcement efforts through the local, state, and International Crime-Stoppers Program.

In the fall of 2009 the Greater Peoria Area Crime Stoppers and Illinois State Crime Stoppers Association held a special Tribute Banquet in his honor in Peoria, Illinois. Attendees included State and National legal and law representatives plus many Crime Stoppers programs from throughout Illinois and surrounding states. Letters from the National founder, from Judge Carter, National Legal Counsel and International Crime Stoppers figures were both read and presented in person at the banquet. Ken was greatly honored to have received such recognition.

He was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Pekin.

A funeral mass for Ken will be conducted at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, April 8, 2010 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Pekin, with Father Timothy Nolan officiating. Visitation will be from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at Woolsey Funeral Home in Pekin. Entombment with military honors will be at Swan Lake Memory Gardens Mausoleum in Peoria.

Memorials may be made to any of the following: the Groveland Library, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Pekin, Greater Peoria Area Crime Stoppers, or the Illinois State Crime Stoppers Association.

Online tributes and condolences may be submitted to www.WoolseyFuneralHM.com.