WALKER SOCIETY PROFILE: John Camp ’69

In early August after his third-form year, John Camp ’69 found himself in the office of Headmaster A. Baker Duncan ’45. John recalls, “I was in a two-sizes-too-small wool blazer, and it felt like it was 110 degrees in there.” Along with the headmaster, John’s father was there too. His first year at Woodberry hadn’t gone well; a mandatory summer school session had not delivered better results.

“Do you want to stay here?” Mr. Duncan asked the scared student, who responded in the affirmative. “Well, your grades certainly don’t show it,” John recalls the headmaster saying. “But you can have one more chance. You’ve got to stop complaining and do the work.”

John agreed to those terms and never looked back. He graduated from Woodberry with the class of 1969 and earned letters in football, basketball, and lacrosse before earning his undergraduate degree at Sewanee: The University of the South. He later received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

“You can’t buy that,” John says of the tough love he received that sweltering summer day from Mr. Duncan.

Aside from decades of consistent giving to both the Amici Fund and several capital campaigns, John is now a member of the Joseph G. and Violet N. Walker Society. Members of the Walker Society have made provision for Woodberry in their wills, retirement plans, or through a charitable trust.

“The Walker Society is a painless way to give to Woodberry,” John says. “After all, by the time you make your gift, you’re already gone. Woodberry did a great job molding me. It takes raw lumps of clay and molds them into young men. The Walker Society pays that forward and benefits everything from salaries for the teachers to tuition assistance funds.”

John has spent the past 30 years of his career working for private equity funds. Though he and his wife Caren make their home in Alexandria, Virginia, he is a managing director for Chicago-based Arbor Investments—which buys companies in the food manufacturing, processing, packaging, and distribution sectors. For many years, he worked for New York-based private equity funds. That means many of his days were spent on the road. “Whenever I’m in New York City, I see friends from the class of 1969; and I love to seek out Woodberry people in the different locations I visit,” he says.

Aside from his support of Woodberry, John and three dozen other members of his family helped establish the Camp Family Chair—which is currently held by Dean of Faculty Dr. Matt Boesen. John is also passionate about protecting the outdoors. He served on the Virginia Nature Conservancy Board and is active with Ducks Unlimited.

In everything he’s done he thinks of the teachers and coaches who helped him, like Wilfred Grenfell, who John remembers as “a rock star who made history come alive,” or Mr. Duncan, “who was omnipresent in that era.” He also flourished on the football and lacrosse fields under the tutelage of Bob Gillespie, a Sewanee graduate like John.

“Mr. Gillespie was a great influence on me. Good coaches can get things from you that you didn’t know you had in you,” John says. “Woodberry was good to me, and I’ve tried to pay that back.”