Remembering North's Mr. Campanile

Ruth Pepe, a retired Spanish teacher and guidance counselor, still remembers when her boss, then-Middletown North High School Principal Nicholas Campanile, would stop by her classes at to converse with students … in French or Italian.

"The students would ask him questions in Spanish," said Pepe, who retired from the Middletown district in 2007. "They’d expect him to answer in Spanish, but he’d answer in French or Italian."

That was Campanile’s sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor, and just one of the things that made working in the Tindall Road building enjoyable according to Pepe, herself a 1967 graduate of the school then known as Middletown Township High School, or MTHS, the township's only high school at the time.

Campanile, who died July 30, eventually made the school later known as Middletown High School North into a home away from home, said Pepe, of Point Pleasant.

"We always said that North was a family," Pepe said.

Another graduate, Kristine Binaco, recalls bringing Josephine Uliano, an Italian exchange student in 1974 to meet the man that more than 3,000 students in the student body called "Mr. Campanile."

"He welcomed her, spoke with her in Italian, and asked her how her classes were going," said Binaco, now of Fair Haven.

A few years later, in 1978, Lori Feldman Albert and a group of friends helped their principal celebrate his 50th birthday — much to his surprise.

"We made a big birthday cake and pushed it down the hall to him," said Feldman Albert, of Middletown’s Belford section. "He was a very visible principal."

A Tinton Falls resident at the time of his death, Campanile will always be linked to Middletown through his 33 years as an educator and administrator in the township. Most notably, Campanile walked the halls and attended multiple extracurricular activites while principal of the older high school for 25 years.

The Asbury Park native and U.S. Navy veteran was known for his professionalism at work and his love of family according to Vicki Roberts Campanile, his wife of 27 years.

Campanile sent money back to his financially struggling parents even while in the service, said Vicki Campanile, who met her husband while teaching physical education at Middletown North.

After leaving the serivce, Campanile tapped into the G.I. Bill to earn bachelor's degrees from Rutgers University and the University of Pisa. Via a scholarship, he earned a master’s degree from Yale University and began a new family tradition of continuing education.

Campanile came to the high school, first as assistant principal in 1960 and was later promoted to principal in 1967. He then shepherded MTHS through some of its more turbulent years when the student body attended classes on overlapping split sessions.

The hallways were crowded, but the principal was always walking them whenever the bells signaling change of classes would ring.

At that time, there were 12 class periods throughout the day, from sunrise to sunset.

"He oversaw the entire school under split sessions and triple sessions," Vicki Campanile said.

Split sessions and the overcrowded conditions ended when Middletown High School South opened in September, 1976. Half of the school’s staff and student body went over to the new school, but Campanile remained at the building now often known simply as "North." He then took on new challenges as the school adjusted to its new identity.

"He had such a fierce loyalty to North and always fought for whatever the school needed," Vicki Campanile said. "Additional staff, library resources, field renovations, whatever it was."

Sometimes, his advocacy for the older high school hit a raw nerve with the school administration and the boards of education, she noted.

"There was always a fight, but he was always the spokesman for Middletown North," Vicki Campanile said. "People might not have
always agreed with his decisions, but they always respected him for taking a stand and supporting what he so strongly believed in."

"He was indeed a principal with strong principles," she added.

Through the Vietnam War and despite an anti-establishment attitude that dominated the times, Campanile kept the student body in line, albeit in his own quiet way according to Jeanne Ciarmelli Haworth, a retired physical education teacher.

"There was never a problem too big," said Haworth, who was hired by Campanile in 1970. "He had control of the building and a very calming influence."

If anyone in the community had a negative comment about the school, Campanile vehemently defended the staff and student body, but never sugar-coated things, said Haworth, now living in South Carolina.

"He probably exhibited more school spirit than anyone you knew," Haworth said.

Students respected Campanile and found him accessible, according to Bill Anania, a 1976 graduate.

"He was the only principal [with whom] I could walk into his office and sit down and have a talk about anything," said Anania, now a podiatrist practicing in Middletown. "He was a great man and will be missed."

When it came to hiring teachers and staff, Campanile chose carefully according to Kathleen Corcoran, a retired guidance counselor.

"I remember him telling me that he only hired the best and then he would allow them to do their jobs," said Corcoran of Barnegat.
“He encouraged innovation in education and supported his staff."

Three of his hires, Jack Carmody, currently the assistant principal in charge of guidance at North, and  Tony Howard and Mary Ellen Christopher, retired guidance counselors, credit Campanile with helping advance their education and careers.

After Carmody came on board in 1982 as an industrial arts teacher, Campanile often checked in with him to see how he could help him
in the classroom.

"He did what he could to help us and got me what I needed," Carmody said. "Nick was very involved with us and always valued our area."

Eventually, Campanile encouraged Carmody to return to school for a master’s degree in student guidance.

"He was always involved during his years at North," said Carmody of Middletown’s Navesink section.

Like Pepe, Howard, who was hired in 1978,  believes that Campanile created a sense of community in the school.

"Nick was an excellent communicator who had the best interests of the faculty, students and the community at heart," said Howard of Little Silver. "He always tried to do the right thing and was very
aware of current trends in education," he added.

Though she was originally hired to teach Spanish and English, Christopher also returned to graduate school to become a guidance counselor, at Campanile’s suggestion.

"I owe my career and my success to Mr. Campanile," said Christopher, of Oceanport.

Unlike some administrators, Campanile did not micro-manage his staffers, but rather entrusted them to work up to their potential, Christopher said.

Retired math teacher Richard Linaberry also remembers Campanile stopping by classrooms to check on teachers and students.

If a teacher had disciplinary issues with a student, Campanile would be fair and listen to both sides, said Linaberry of Atlantic Highlands.

"He would always back you up if you had a problem with a student," said Linaberry. "He was pro-teacher, but he was also pro-student."

At home, Campanile was the "rock" of the family who nurtured a love of learning in his five children according to Vicki Campanile.

The couple’s youngest son, Kyle, 20, mentioned Campanile's
dedication to the family and to the high school in the eulogy he delivered during the principal’s funeral Mass earlier this month.

“You shaped countless lives in your 25 years as principal and you continually provided for all of your five children,” Kyle Campanile wrote. “You’ve been a loving father and a devoted husband.”

Besides his wife and son Kyle, Campanile is also survived by his sons Paul, Nicholas, and Kurt and his daughter Lisa Campanile-Besso, son-in-law Giorgio and grandson, Cole.