Wes Campbell (BEng'63, LLB'66, LLD'07)
Posted: August 16, 2024
For Wes Campbell (BEng’63, LLB’66, LLD’07), it’s always been about engineering. “Even when I was an article clerk, I was doing engineering projects on the side,” he says. “In fact, the day I was admitted to the bar, I stopped law and started my engineering practice.”
More than fifty years later, Campbell is still, as he puts it, “making buildings stand up.” And as president of Campbell Comeau Engineering Limited, he credits his lifetime of business success to Dalhousie. “Without my university education, I wouldn’t have the career I have today.”
And while he never practiced law, Campbell still draws on his ϳԹlegal training every day. “Thanks to law school, I learned there are absolutely two sides to every story,” he explains. “Everyone has an idea, possibly much better than mine, so I listen closely to my clients and pay attention to what they want.”
Over the years, Campbell has supported ϳԹas a donor and a volunteer leader. While serving both as vice-chair of the TUNS board and a member of the ϳԹBoard of Governors, Campbell helped lead the 1997 merger of the two institutions. A former president of the Alumni Association, Campbell currently sits on the Capital Projects and Facilities Committee.
“My ϳԹeducation was the greatest gift I ever received,” adds Campbell, whose contributions to the university were recognized in 2007 with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. “What I’ve done all my life is practice exactly what I learned at Dal – and those skills have allowed me to earn a good living all these years.”
In gratitude, Campbell will be leaving an unrestricted legacy gift to Dalhousie, directed to the Faculty of Engineering. Ever the engineer, Campbell says, “You need money to build the buildings and run the buildings, so I’ve arranged for my gift to be used by the Dean for the greatest need at the time, however it presents itself.”
So what advice would Campbell offer to those who may be thinking about remembering ϳԹin their will? “Many of us went through university at a time when education cost next to nothing, compared to today,” says Campbell. “In a sense, by giving future students the chance to enjoy the same benefits I did, I’m feel I’m paying ϳԹback for all it’s given me.”