Francis M. Campbell · 2013 Honoree

Except for several years in the 1980s when he lived in California, Francis Campbell has spent his entire life in the Capitol Hill neighborhood he now serves as representative for ANC 6B. His grandmother grew up on Constitution Avenue back when it was B Street Northeast and he spent his childhood there and on South Carolina Avenue in homes where he and his three younger brothers shared one room while their three sisters shared another. His father worked for the Postal Service, his mother for the government (she has just retired from the Department of Housing and Urban Development after 53 years of federal service). He went to school at Payne Elementary, the now defunct St. Cyprian’s at 8th and C Streets, Southeast and graduated from Eastern High in 1969. He went on to complete the Washington Technical Institute’s Respiratory Therapy program where he met his wife, Rachelle. He has lived in Washington long enough to recall blatant prejudice and the riots, but also a time when he and his younger brother could spend Saturdays watching triple features at the Beverly Theater at 15th and E Northeast, stuff themselves with popcorn and candy, and have change from three dollars. He fondly remembers the big old trees in Lincoln Park and around the Capitol and, as a teenager, walking in to admire the Rotunda or stopping by to listen to arguments at the Supreme Court. 

Francis has worked as a Registered Respiratory Therapist in local hospitals and as a contract respiratory therapist outside the metro area, as an on board service attendant with Amtrak and has put in a lot of time as “Mr. Mom” to his five sons – Jonn, Bastian, Christian, Patrick and Jordan. In 2002, while working, he was seriously injured in a train derailment and so was retired on disability when, two years later, his 14 year old son Patrick suffered a stroke. Francis became his son’s constant companion and advocate for four months while he recovered in the hospital,  in the difficult days as he started back to school, and over the next two years. He found it necessary to take legal action against DCPS to secure a dedicated aide and services to enable Patrick to keep up with his studies and then, in 2009, he watched with pride and admiration as he walked across the stage at Duke Ellington High School for the Arts to receive his high school diploma. 

Understanding from neighbors that they, too, experienced difficulties with city bureaucracy, Francis decided to commit himself to facilitating better communication between citizens and government. For ten years he has served his local ANC 6B as commissioner, attending meetings, studying mundane issues like traffic lights, and high profile, controversial  zoning decisions. He has nurtured a particular interest in special education and in the needs of longtime residents of the neighborhood, those he calls “seasoned” citizens, who find themselves pressured by the steep rise of property taxes. This commitment to our neighborhood has become a full time passion, one Francis Campbell plans to pursue in 2014 as a candidate for City Council.