Obituary of Douglas Campbell
Douglas Campbell of Larchmont, NY passed away on March 3rd, at the age of 28. He was a beloved son, grandson, brother, nephew, and cousin.
Douglas’ life is testimony that almost anything can be accomplished, if you work hard enough and long enough. At birth, his family was told that he would never be able to walk, talk, feed himself, or carry out any of the activities of daily living – and that he would likely require a 24/7 care setting.
Fortunately, Douglas proved the professionals wrong. With the help of his family, talented and dedicated therapists, skilled educators, and the support of a generous and welcoming community, Douglas was able to lead a happy and fulfilling life.
He couldn’t smile, but he put a smile on the faces of everyone around him. He couldn’t talk, but he was quick to engage people in conversation. And as an infant who wasn’t expected to be able to feed or clothe himself, he learned to ski and to swim, went tubing on lakes in Massachusetts and Michigan, loved music and dancing, enjoyed hikes, looked forward to trips, and competed in Special Olympics.
As a social person, Douglas always looked forward to the many programs and services offered by South East Consortium. He was a regular at trips and events, an avid movie-goer (as long as popcorn was available), and a member of the South East Sharks Swim Club, and the SEC Dance Company. When everything went virtual, Douglas met his friends on Zoom, and kept his family well-fed by cooking every Tuesday evening in the virtual SEC Chefs program.
Douglas loved school, and he went to his fair share of them. The first school that stepped up and accepted a non-verbal child, who was unable to walk, and required the assistance of an aide was the Transitional Learning Center in New Rochelle. From there he went on to Central School in Mamaroneck. When it was clear that the most appropriate setting for Douglas was a school that provided one-on-one ABA (applied behavioral analysis) therapy, he moved to the Deveraux-Millwood Learning Center in Millwood, NY. Douglas thrived at DMLC, and he loved the staff and aides. He came back into the Mamaroneck School District for high school, attending until he moved on at age 21. He was proud to be a Tiger and was fortunate to overlap years in school with both of his younger siblings. In his last year, Douglas was presented an athletic award for his six years representing Mamaroneck in Special Olympics.
Most recently, Douglas was attending Cardinal McCloskey Community Services’ (CMCS) Day Habilitation program – and he was looking forward to getting a job when he completed the Pathways to Employment program. He was also excited to be moving into a group home managed by CMCS.
Douglas is survived by his Mother and Father (Kathryn and Richard), his sister (Sarah), brother (Nick), three grandparents (Jane and Ran Kim, and Kitty Campbell), aunts and uncles (Grace Campbell of Walkersville, MD; Hank Kim of Brooklyn, NY; Greg and Amanda Kim of Boise, ID), and cousins (John and Lisa Campbell of Silver Spring, MD; Emilie Campbell and Frank Rodriguez of Evanston, IL).
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to South East Consortium http://www.secrec.org/ or to Cardinal McCloskey Community Services https://www.cmcs.org/ (please specify Douglas Campbell as the honoree, so your donation will go to support their adult and residential services).
A memorial service will be livestreamed on Tuesday, March 16th at 10:00am EST.
The service can be accessed at:
http://www.lacny.org/worship/
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