Scotland-born Ivor Campbell moved to Canada as a boy, received his Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Toronto in 1920, and then remained at the school to pursue medicine. During his time at the university he was a regular on the school’s varsity rowing squad and at the Canadian National Championships, but his most significant event came in 1924, when he was selected to help represent Canada in the coxed eights at that year’s Summer Olympics. At the Games, his squad, which consisted of Arthur Bell, Robert Hunter, William Langford, Harold Little, John Smith, Warren Snyder, Norman Taylor, and William Wallace, lost their heat to the United States, but earned the right to compete in the final by winning the repêchage. There they were again defeated by the United States, but captured the silver medal ahead of the Italians and the Britons.
A member of Phi Gamma Delta, Campbell graduated with his medical degree in 1925. During World War II he served as a psychiatrist with the Royal Canadian Air Force and, later, worked as a flight surgeon with the United States Army Air Forces. He eventually settled in Portland, Oregon, where he held the position of chief of psychiatric services at the local Veteran’s Administration (a precursor to the modern United States Department of Veterans Affairs) and was often called on to provide an expert opinion in criminal cases.
Canada