ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington Public Library hosted the unveiling of a new exhibit at its Shirlington Library on Friday that honors the life and legacy of Elizabeth Campbell, who helped to found WETA, the first public television station in the Washington, D.C., area.
The centerpiece of the new exhibit is the desk that Campbell used during her decades working at WETA in Arlington. Campbell’s family, including her son Donald Campbell, who was at the ceremony, agreed to donate the desk to Arlington Public Library.
At Friday’s ceremony, Sharon Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA, recalled working with Campbell, who she described as a mentor and friend.
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“She continued to work at WETA at this desk through her 100th birthday,” said Rockefeller, who served on WETA’s board of trustees for seven years prior to being named president in 1989.
Rockefeller remembered sitting on the other side of the desk several times a day in meetings with Campbell. “It was her throne. There’s no other way of saying it. And everyone loved being invited in. It was a very big tribute and a treat,” she told the audience. “I was truly graced to share so many vivid memories and years with Mrs. Campbell.”
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Prior to moving to Arlington, Campbell served as the dean of Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, where she met Edmund Campbell, a lawyer. The two married in 1936, and then moved to Arlington.
Campbell supported her husband’s legal campaign to end segregation in Virginia schools. She then won a seat on the Arlington School Board. In 2004, Campbell died at the age of 101.
“Elizabeth and Ed centered their lives around principles of seeking a just society, building — and we’re still working on this — building a community where all could thrive and empowering everyone to enjoy lifelong learning, as this exhibit beautifully covers,” Rockefeller said.
At the ceremony, Diane Kresh, director of Arlington Public Library, said the desk and chair donated by the Campbell family “are precious reminders” of Campbell’s legacy of giving back to the community.
“Just imagine if this desk could talk,” she said.
Kresh highlighted a quote by Campbell in the exhibit on display at Shirlington library. “There are three great educational institutions in this country: public schools, public libraries and public television,” the quote reads.
In 1961, at the age of 59 — an age that many people start thinking about retirement — Campbell joined a group of prominent Washington-area residents to pursue the goal of creating an education television station in the D.C. area that became WETA, Rockefeller said.
More than 60 years later, WETA’s headquarters in Shirlington is in the middle of $58 million renovation that is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023. The new building will combine WETA’s offices and studios with the PBS NewsHour.
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Among public television stations in the country, WETA is second only to WGBH in Boston in the number of shows it produces.
“Her legacy is all around us in this library, in the city, in the institutions she championed, and especially WETA, which I think is her grandest legacy,” Rockefeller said.
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