Photo credit: John Shultz

Brian Campbell (BUS ’63, MS ’73, DHL ’12) has established two endowed scholarship funds at DePaul that make it possible for today’s students to achieve a first-rate business education the way he did. In so doing, he also pays tribute to those who made it possible for him.

With his generous gifts, Campbell has established the Eugene J. Muldoon Endowed Scholarship and the Brian Campbell Finance Scholarship, which are awarded annually to undergraduate students in the Driehaus College of Business.

Campbell, a first-generation college student, says, “I had to work my way through college, so it was important for me to go to a school with job opportunities nearby.” But what really made the difference in his education was not the proximity to his job at the Burlington Northern Railroad, but rather the teachers he encountered at DePaul.

“At some point, you have to admit to yourself that the success you’ve had is not entirely due to your own brilliance,” says Campbell, currently president and CEO of Campbell Industries Inc., a private investment firm, and former chairman, president and CEO of Kaydon Corp. “There still is a certain humility at DePaul, an emphasis on teamwork as opposed to narcissism. No one ever really makes it on their own. There are people who help you along the way.”

For Campbell, one of those people was Eugene J. Muldoon, a finance professor active at DePaul from 1955 through the late 1960s. “Gene Muldoon believed in me,” Campbell says. “He always encouraged me and my classmates, and he took a real interest in our success. He had a tremendous impact.”

This kind of mentoring and support is important, Campbell believes, especially for first-generation students. So is scholarship support. “It’s not possible for someone to put themselves through college anymore,” Campbell says, “though most DePaul students still work while they are going to school. The financial support is a necessity, but I think it means so much just to know that there are others who believe in you.”