Robert Camp

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Robert Camp [send private message]

My Surnames

• Paternal Grandfather ancestors

Banks, Boatwright , Buchanan

Camp (Campe) , Canfield , Cox , Crawford

Duncan

Elsberry, Erskine

Hamilton, Helm

Jackson

Neill (O'Neill)

Richards, Robinson , Rogers

Sparks, Stanton

Thompson, Tyler

Ward

• Paternal Grandmother ancestors

Anthony

Cardwell

Fernsler

Haynes

Keltner (Kelchner, Ketner)

McNees (Menees) , McWright , Moore , Murphy , Musgrave

Peters (Petri) , Pippers , Plumley

Quimby (Quinby)

Robison

Stapleton (De Stapylton, De Stapleton)

White, Whitson , Wray

• Maternal Grandfather ancestors

Campbell

Devane

Gregory, Grogan

Harper, Herring

Loftin (Loughton)

Martin

Poitevint (Poitevin) , Powell

Strickland (De Strickland, DeVaux, Vaux) , Sullivant

Treadwell

Wells

• Maternal Grandmother ancestors

Bruning

Jung

Minett

Nold

Voss

Wegman

Certifications

PMP® - Project Management Professional

CCEP® - Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional

Sources

Information is based on first-hand knowledge and records compiled and written by Robert Camp.

Biography

Early Childhood Years

Robert Camp was born on a spring morning in 1953 at a doctor's office in Marfa, Texas. The small town is situated in the high desert country of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. According to a description of the event provided by Joe Camp, father of Robert, the doctor told him to wait on the outdoor steps of the office while the doctor assisted Gaye (Poitevint) Camp in her delivery. In those mid-twentieth century years, fathers-to-be were not yet commonly seen nor invited inside delivery rooms during the childbirth process.

After the birth, Joe Camp telephoned his wife's mother in Pecos, Texas, and his mother in Junction, Texas, with news of the birth. His mother said that she would leave Junction by auto the next morning to help care for the new mother and baby and that in-route, she would stop in Sheffield, Texas, to tell Joe Camp's father the news, since he was out-of-town working on a Texas Highway Department construction job to repair a washed out bridge near Sheffield on the Pecos River. The timing of the birth was fortuitous because Joe Camp's parents had just taken delivery of a new Ford sedan that same morning.

In October 1954, the Camps moved some 70 miles northwest from Marfa to Van Horn, Texas. The new parents did now want to leave Marfa, but Joe Camp was a civil engineer working in the Soil Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and he was urged to accept an 18-month assignment in Van Horn with the promise for relocation to Pecos, Texas, at the end of the assignment.

The promise made to relocate the Camps to Pecos, Texas, was kept, and in May 1956 the family moved again. It was a welcomed homecoming for them. Gaye Camp had grown up in Pecos, and her parents and most of her siblings and their families lived there or close by in the West Texas area. Joe Camp had first started his career in Pecos, and it was there that he had met his future wife. The Camps were to live in Pecos for the next 8 years.

The Camp family grew with the birth of a second son, Billy J Camp, in September 1956. At that time, the family lived in an old wood-framed house on Oleander Street. Both parents were kept fully engaged with work, family, and an ever expanding group of friends. They were members of the First Christian Church of Pecos, and church services and activities were always marked on their calendars.

While living on Oleander Street, Robert became close friends with the son and daughter of Randell and Ruth Butler. The friendship expanded to include the 2 sets of parents. Some years later during the early 1960's, Joe Camp joined Randell Butler, his brother, Evan Butler, and other close friends and family members of the Butlers in partnership for the speculative purchase and holding of approximately 240 acres of farm and wooded bottom land along the San Marcos River, southeast of San Marcos, Texas. The fortuitous nature of the land purchase was to become apparent not long after it was transacted.

During these years following the end of WWII, the area surrounding Pecos, Texas, became a major producer of cotton. This otherwise arid desert country was transformed into a veritable Garden of Eden, lush and green as far as the eye could see, thanks to an ancient aquifer whose waters were now being pumped onto endless row upon row of expansive cotton farms.

Numerous cotton gins were built to store and process the abundant production. For more than a decade, cotton farming directly secured a prosperity for many families and contributed to an expanding financial well-being of the region. The new wealth of the successful class of cotton farmers was put on display in an explosion of new commercial and residential construction in Pecos. It was a time for deal-making and ever expanding irrigation of the desert land. It seemed that there was no end in sight to the opportunities, that is to say, not until the end finally came into sight.

Meanwhile, Robert began his formal education at age 6 during the 1959-1960 school year. He found the classroom experience both stimulating and enjoyable. He consistently made above average grades from the beginning.

School report cards were carried home with A's and B's. However, there was one subject that proved difficult for Robert to master: deportment. Nearly every academic year, his report card would bear the stain of a deportment rating of "unsatisfactory" for 1 or more of the grading periods.

His school deportment was compromised, more often than not, by his ill-timed and oft-repeated attentions directed to the girls in his classes. It did not help matters that a number of female students in his classes were receptive to the attention.

An illustrative incident that occurred during his second year of school had just such a negative effect on his deportment grade. In those years, spelling bees were often conducted by teachers on an impromptu basis, happening at times when the students had completed their work and at other times as a reward for their academic efforts.

For such spelling bees, Robert's second grade teacher always divided the students into 2 competing lines based on their gender. Girls were lined up on one side of the classroom while boys were put in a line on the other side. The teacher would submit a word for spelling to the students in 1 of the lines. When a student misspelled a word, that student was eliminated from the contest and returned to their desk. The misspelled word was then submitted to the other line, and so on, back and forth between the 2 lines until a student spelled it correctly. The contest continued in this fashion until all the members in 1 of the 2 lines were eliminated. The remaining line was declared the victor.

On the day of the incident in question, Robert decided to join the line of girls, much to the amusement of all the students. Unfortunately, his teacher was not amused, and Robert was told to fall in line with the boys. He replied that it made no sense to always match the girls against the boys, and he said that for this spelling bee he would stand in line with the girls.

After the teacher gave a final ultimatum to Robert and he declined to change lines, he was handed a demerit slip with a note and told to take it immediately to the office of the school Principal for punishment. The consequence was that his deportment for that grading period was again rated "unsatisfactory". Fortunately, as the years went on, Robert learned to improve his deportment, overcoming the distracting influence of girls while classes were in session.