Charles Diven Campbell

Charles Diven Campbell (b. Anderson, Indiana, August 3, 1877 – d. March 29, 1919) – Educator, administrator, and composer. Charles Diven Campbell, an Anderson native, attended the University of Heidelberg in Germany and Indiana University before going on to earn a Ph.D. in Philology at the University of Strassburg (Germany) in 1906. After being appointed as Instructor of German at Indiana University in 1906, Campbell quickly moved up in the ranks to Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor by the time that he was selected to establish a new Department of Music, which he launched in 1910 with 214 students. (In the following year, the enrollment rose to 281.) Campbell’s appointment by University President William Lowe Bryant (served 1902-37) came on the crux that he had worked very hard at introducing music performance and music instruction to the campus, even though his teaching position was in another discipline. As an example, Campbell established a music fund from the proceeds of a concert that he arranged by the Schellschmidt Quartet from Indianapolis in 1907. In the few years leading up to the founding of the music department, he taught non-credits courses in music history and conducted operatic performances. In 1916, Campbell composed music and conducted for centennial celebrations for the state of Indiana in Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Corydon. Included in the musical portions of the events was his “Hymn to Indiana.” Campbell led IU’s Department of Music until his death in 1919. Only two years after his death, the department became the School of Music, which first offered a music major in 1922.