The Reverend Gordon Campbell, 91, an honorably retired minister of Missouri Presbytery, died April 1, 2021. Gordon was born July 26, 1929, in the Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Springfield, Missouri. He graduated from Central High School in Springfield in 1947. He married Forda Nathane Murray in 1950.

Gordon’s father, Major Cecil Calvin Campbell, was a Presbyterian minister and U.S. Army Chaplain and his mother, Aileen Bell Jones Campbell, was a teacher and director of Christian education. His sister is the Reverend Katherine Eudora Campbell (PCUSA) and his brother-in-law is the Reverend Thomas Parker (PCUSA).

Gordon attended Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and Drury College in Springfield before serving in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He then graduated from Southwest Missouri State College (now Missouri State University) in Springfield in 1955. He then attended Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, graduating in 1958.

Gordon was ordained by Carthage-Ozark Presbytery (UPCUSA) September 21, 1958, at the First Presbyterian Church in Golden City, Missouri. Over the course of his ministry in the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and Presbyterian Church (USA), Gordon served Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church in Cave Springs, Missouri; White Oak Presbyterian Church in Sarcoxie, Missouri; Carthage Parish (Irwin, Preston, Madison, Grace, Golden City, and Lockwood Presbyterian Churches) in Missouri; Perry Presbyterian Church in Perry, Missouri; Bethel Presbyterian Church in Mexico, Missouri; Laddonia Presbyterian Church in Laddonia, Missouri; Bethany Presbyterian Church in Joplin, Missouri; and Preston Presbyterian Church in Carthage, Missouri.

Gordon came to Ozark Presbytery in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in around 1986 on the eve of middle-judicatory realignment and pastored the New Hope Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Salem, Missouri. He retired from full-time ministry in 1998 but continued to preach and moderate sessions for various churches within the bounds of Missouri Presbytery. He was devoted to the history of the presbyteries and synods in which he ministered serving on several historical committees and commissions. Forda died in 2018.