Obituary for Douglas Campbell
Loving Husband, Father, and Brother, Douglas Campbell Jr., 54, of Nutley, passed away on March 12, 2022. Born in Montclair to the late Douglas and Mary Rose (Mullen) Campbell, Doug was raised in Parsippany, graduating from Parsippany High School in 1985. He received his business degree from Seton Hall University. Doug worked for Camfil USA in Riverdale, NJ where he was Plant Controller. He is survived by his loving and devoted wife Karen (Tontala), his son, Douglas Joseph, his mother, Mary Rose, predeceased by his father, Douglas. Also, survived by his two sisters: Catherine (John) Giordano and Beth (Jim) Giuliano, as well as their sons Matthew, Kyle and daughter, Cassidy. Doug will be deeply missed, but never forgotten.
A Memorial Mass will be offered at St. Mary’s Church, Nutley on Saturday, March 19, at 10:30 a.m.
Cremation was private. No visitation prior to mass.
Some loving words from Karen and Douglas:
Doug Campbell…where do I begin. I fell in love with Doug in the spring of 1990. I was fresh out of college and moved to NJ from an extremely small coal mining town in western PA. We met at General Chemical in Parsippany, NJ, the town where Doug grew up. He was in the Accounting and I was in the IT department. Doug was a huge NY Mets fan and coming from western PA, I was a huge Pirates fan. These were the Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Leyland days of the Pirates and the Darryl Strawberry, Kevin McReynolds and Mackey Sasser days of the NY Mets. Being in IT, I had the power to change people’s passwords; so, in order to talk to Doug, I would change his passwords. Sometimes it went from GOMETS to PIRATES#1 or from SKIDROW to BARRYMANILOW. Needless to say it worked. I can vividly recall being in my office telling my coworker”I’m going to marry Doug someday.” We were the office romance that everybody knew about. Throughout our courtship, I fell in love with his family: his parents, his beloved father, Doug and Rose, sister’s Cathy and Beth and future brother in law, Jim. I met his best friend, John, who I referred to the brother he never had and beloved friend, Tommy, RIP. After five years of dating, new jobs and new addresses, we got married.
Doug and I tied the knot, on a beautiful fall day, October 12th, 1996, We honeymooned in Hawaii for two weeks and returned annually for many years after. It was our special place. Doug and I relished our couple time together living in Clifton, meeting me in the city after work for dinner, seeing Broadway shows, going to sporting events, etc. After five years, we decided it was time to really settle down. In 2002, we bought our townhouse in Nutley, a small family oriented town just outside of NYC which reminded me in a way of my hometown. On February 8th, 2003 the light of OUR life, Douglas Joseph was born: 8 lbs 9 ½ oz. 19” long. Obviously, a mother has a close relationship to her child, but Doug’s relationship with Douglas was immeasurable. Doug was SUCH a proud father. In elementary school, Doug went to every Open House, Parent/Teacher conference, Spring concert and promotion. He was at every Nutley East Opening day and was at the field for every one of his son’s T-Ball, B-Ball, Farm League and Little League games. Once year Doug volunteered to coach a Farm league team. Coach Doug. It was such a fun season. His style was to not to put the best pitcher in or the best hitters on deck just to win the game, but rather to let every kid no matter what their ability, to try pitching if they wanted or be the catcher. He just wanted them to learn the game and above all, have fun. After being a Little League Dad, he became a Hockey, Marching Band and Crew parent. We so loved our family time together during those early morning and late night ice times, band practices and crew meets. Oh yes, those 5:00 am wake up times were brutal, but the conversations we would have in our blue Honda on the drive to the games and meets and practices are priceless now. Doug and I were huge parade and fireworks people. I always said Nutley during its Memorial Day parade and the 4th of July fireworks at the Oval was “Americana at its finest”. I remember the first time Doug and I volunteered to pull a wagon of bottled water behind the Nutley Marching Band during the Memorial Day parade. This year it was probably in the mid 80’s. We just remember hitting Chestnut Street (hill) at the beginning of the parade route and thinking what have we gotten ourselves into. We had to take turns pulling it because it was so heavy and we were just dripping with sweat. Needless to say we did that route several times after that but it was such fun. We did everything as a family.
Many of you know, that we took care of my aging parents. My Dad had Alzheimer’s and my Mom had severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. Doug knew when we married that one of them would eventually live with us because I didn’t want my sole parent to live in PA alone. Unfortunately, my Mom couldn’t care for my Dad illness on top of her own. A nursing home or VA hospital was also out of the question. Many husbands would have just said No, but Doug agreed to let them both move into our townhouse where they lived with us for five years. We were in our early 40’s with a 7 year old child. I am not going to sugar coat it, but it was some of the roughest, most stressful five years a family and couple could go through. But to our credit, we survived and became stronger. He was there for us when both of my parents passed and just recently, we were there for him when his own father passed. Telling his father, not to worry, he would look after Mom and take care of her. He kept his promise.
Doug was this love of my life, the heart of our family and my son’s hero. I have no doubt in my heart that Doug loved us and he knew he was loved. We told each other EVERYDAY. Doug and Douglas would tag team me and say”Mommy needs a hug” and then proceed to surround me and just squeeze me. Then Douglas and I would say one day “Daddy needs a hug” and do the same to him. Doug was the funniest person we knew. His humor was one of the many reasons I fell in love with him. Any man who can drive his wife’s yellow VW Beetle to work to Newark for two years has to have a great sense of humor. It came to my attention years later, that it known by many as ”Dougie’s Buggy”. Oh, I could go on and on with Doug stories as could each of you. Doug knew who he was. He wasn’t pretentious or arrogant. He was the type of person who was funny and relatable, a team player, a kind hearted man and a true friend, if you were lucky enough to know him. We were luckily to have loved him.
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.
How do you measure,
Measure a year?
In daylights?
In sunsets?
In midnights?
In cups of coffee?
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife?
Measure in love...
It's time now to sing out,
though the story never ends.
Let's celebrate remember a year in a life
of friends
Remember the love...
A Memorial Mass will be offered at St. Mary’s Church, Nutley on Saturday, March 19, at 10:30 a.m.
Cremation was private. No visitation prior to mass.
Some loving words from Karen and Douglas:
Doug Campbell…where do I begin. I fell in love with Doug in the spring of 1990. I was fresh out of college and moved to NJ from an extremely small coal mining town in western PA. We met at General Chemical in Parsippany, NJ, the town where Doug grew up. He was in the Accounting and I was in the IT department. Doug was a huge NY Mets fan and coming from western PA, I was a huge Pirates fan. These were the Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Leyland days of the Pirates and the Darryl Strawberry, Kevin McReynolds and Mackey Sasser days of the NY Mets. Being in IT, I had the power to change people’s passwords; so, in order to talk to Doug, I would change his passwords. Sometimes it went from GOMETS to PIRATES#1 or from SKIDROW to BARRYMANILOW. Needless to say it worked. I can vividly recall being in my office telling my coworker”I’m going to marry Doug someday.” We were the office romance that everybody knew about. Throughout our courtship, I fell in love with his family: his parents, his beloved father, Doug and Rose, sister’s Cathy and Beth and future brother in law, Jim. I met his best friend, John, who I referred to the brother he never had and beloved friend, Tommy, RIP. After five years of dating, new jobs and new addresses, we got married.
Doug and I tied the knot, on a beautiful fall day, October 12th, 1996, We honeymooned in Hawaii for two weeks and returned annually for many years after. It was our special place. Doug and I relished our couple time together living in Clifton, meeting me in the city after work for dinner, seeing Broadway shows, going to sporting events, etc. After five years, we decided it was time to really settle down. In 2002, we bought our townhouse in Nutley, a small family oriented town just outside of NYC which reminded me in a way of my hometown. On February 8th, 2003 the light of OUR life, Douglas Joseph was born: 8 lbs 9 ½ oz. 19” long. Obviously, a mother has a close relationship to her child, but Doug’s relationship with Douglas was immeasurable. Doug was SUCH a proud father. In elementary school, Doug went to every Open House, Parent/Teacher conference, Spring concert and promotion. He was at every Nutley East Opening day and was at the field for every one of his son’s T-Ball, B-Ball, Farm League and Little League games. Once year Doug volunteered to coach a Farm league team. Coach Doug. It was such a fun season. His style was to not to put the best pitcher in or the best hitters on deck just to win the game, but rather to let every kid no matter what their ability, to try pitching if they wanted or be the catcher. He just wanted them to learn the game and above all, have fun. After being a Little League Dad, he became a Hockey, Marching Band and Crew parent. We so loved our family time together during those early morning and late night ice times, band practices and crew meets. Oh yes, those 5:00 am wake up times were brutal, but the conversations we would have in our blue Honda on the drive to the games and meets and practices are priceless now. Doug and I were huge parade and fireworks people. I always said Nutley during its Memorial Day parade and the 4th of July fireworks at the Oval was “Americana at its finest”. I remember the first time Doug and I volunteered to pull a wagon of bottled water behind the Nutley Marching Band during the Memorial Day parade. This year it was probably in the mid 80’s. We just remember hitting Chestnut Street (hill) at the beginning of the parade route and thinking what have we gotten ourselves into. We had to take turns pulling it because it was so heavy and we were just dripping with sweat. Needless to say we did that route several times after that but it was such fun. We did everything as a family.
Many of you know, that we took care of my aging parents. My Dad had Alzheimer’s and my Mom had severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. Doug knew when we married that one of them would eventually live with us because I didn’t want my sole parent to live in PA alone. Unfortunately, my Mom couldn’t care for my Dad illness on top of her own. A nursing home or VA hospital was also out of the question. Many husbands would have just said No, but Doug agreed to let them both move into our townhouse where they lived with us for five years. We were in our early 40’s with a 7 year old child. I am not going to sugar coat it, but it was some of the roughest, most stressful five years a family and couple could go through. But to our credit, we survived and became stronger. He was there for us when both of my parents passed and just recently, we were there for him when his own father passed. Telling his father, not to worry, he would look after Mom and take care of her. He kept his promise.
Doug was this love of my life, the heart of our family and my son’s hero. I have no doubt in my heart that Doug loved us and he knew he was loved. We told each other EVERYDAY. Doug and Douglas would tag team me and say”Mommy needs a hug” and then proceed to surround me and just squeeze me. Then Douglas and I would say one day “Daddy needs a hug” and do the same to him. Doug was the funniest person we knew. His humor was one of the many reasons I fell in love with him. Any man who can drive his wife’s yellow VW Beetle to work to Newark for two years has to have a great sense of humor. It came to my attention years later, that it known by many as ”Dougie’s Buggy”. Oh, I could go on and on with Doug stories as could each of you. Doug knew who he was. He wasn’t pretentious or arrogant. He was the type of person who was funny and relatable, a team player, a kind hearted man and a true friend, if you were lucky enough to know him. We were luckily to have loved him.
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.
How do you measure,
Measure a year?
In daylights?
In sunsets?
In midnights?
In cups of coffee?
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife?
Measure in love...
It's time now to sing out,
though the story never ends.
Let's celebrate remember a year in a life
of friends
Remember the love...