Arthur (Art) Ronald Geyer Campbell, an accomplished writer, editor, and photographer, passed away at the age of 74 after a courageous and spirited battle with illness. He will be remembered for his intelligence, quick wit, creativity, and confidence; his love of motorcycles, cooking, chocolate, scotch, barbecue, and home; his enjoyment of word games; his passion for justice and progressive causes; and his enduring zest for life.

Growing up in Dayton, Ohio, he faced a challenging childhood with love and ingenuity. He was unofficially adopted into the families of friends, establishing a lifelong pattern of maintaining found family and deep friendships around the world.

He was very proud that, although he dropped out of high school to work, he went on to pursue higher education. After obtaining his GED, he earned a BA in communications from the creative hub of Antioch College. He then earned an MS in Journalism from Ohio University (thesis: “Microcomputer Use by Daily Newspapers”) and completed a fellowship at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

He later moved to New England and eventually settled in Groton, Massachusetts, where he co-parented his daughter, Caitlin Campbell, with his lifelong friend and former spouse, Bonnie Allen. A devoted father, he was famous for driving Caitlin to school and horseback riding lessons on the back of his beloved sport-touring BMW motorcycle. He raised Caitlin in a home filled with cherished animals, enormous houseplants, computers, scores of gadgets, and prodigious shelves of books. He later married Betsy Fitzgerald-Campbell, who was his spouse for 27 years. In 2008, they moved to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they lived near the sea.

Art worked as a journalist, photographer, writer, and later technical editor. His friends describe him as wildly talented and he was proud of his professional accomplishments, supported by an expansive knowledge of technology, communications, and politics. He channeled this passion into personal endeavors, including founding and maintaining the popular hyperlocal news site ‘The Groton Line’ and the forum ‘Talk About Groton.’ His work reached thousands, and he became a fixture in the local cultural and political community. An avid photographer, his favorite subjects included the moon, the ocean, irises, and his animal family members.

Although accomplished in his use of written and visual language, Art was famously a man of few words. He expressed himself instead through dry jokes, the occasional unspeakably bad pun, and bone-thumping bear hugs. He deeply enjoyed music, attending countless concerts with friends, building a prodigious home music library, and listening to all subgenres of rock and blues at full volume. He was very proud of his Scottish heritage; he honored his heritage with traditions of attending Highland Games and enjoying single-malt scotch with friends.

In many ways, his mind was constrained only by the limitations imposed by his body—and even then, he prevailed over enormous health challenges. He lived for many years with serious complications from rheumatoid arthritis, which eventually progressed to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In 2023, he received a life-saving double lung transplant, for which he was deeply grateful to an anonymous organ donor and the exceptional medical team at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2025, he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, a likely complication of organ transplantation. He and his family remained deeply appreciative of the outstanding care provided by the teams at Massachusetts General Hospital and the McCarthy Care Center at the end of his life. Throughout his grueling medical journey, he stayed steadfastly and doggedly optimistic: putting on a brave face for friends and family, sharing the stories of his tattoos with medical staff, and supporting others with similar prognoses through online support groups.

In lieu of flowers, a donation in his memory to causes he supported would be appreciated. These include the MSPCA-Angell, the American Cancer Society, Donate Life America, ProPublica, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. A celebration of life will be arranged for spring 2026.

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