Doc Campbell was athletically involved in both curling and golf, helping establish clubs for both sports in his native Orangeville, Ontario. It was in lacrosse, however, that he found the most success. As a student of dentistry at the University of Toronto, he was captain of the team that won the 1902 World University Lacrosse Championship. He graduated that same year and soon founded his own practice, but remained involved in lacrosse and was selected to represent Canada in the sport at the 1908 Summer Olympics. There he earned a gold medal with his team after it won its only match against Great Britain 14-10.
He was active as a lacrosse player for another two decades and, along the way, became involved in politics, serving as mayor of Orangeville from 1914 through 1916. He also took up roles as president of both the Ontario and Canadian Dental Associations and was a member of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario’s Board of Governors from 1940 through 1949. Through it all he continued practicing dentistry and, at the time of his death in 1972 at the age of 94, he was reported to have been the country’s oldest practicing dentist, having given it up only two weeks prior. He was also considered Canada’s oldest living Olympic gold medalist.
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