Campbell Reed Pfeiffer

Campbell Reed Pfeiffer left the physical world early Thursday morning, April 6, 2017, just short of his eighty-first birthday, as his daughter held his hand. Cam was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, in-law, and friend. Cam was born on April 20, 1936 in Hastings, Nebraska, the oldest son of William Roger Pfeiffer and Jeanne Elizabeth Eggert. He joined older sister Jean and later came brothers Stephen and Mark. After their mother died when Cam was 22 years old, their father married Ruth Imperial and they were joined by Cam’s brothers Gerardo, Paul, and John. William was a vocalist, music teacher, and professor of ethnomusicology and the family moved several times. Cam’s favorite home was on Goat Hill Road in Lambertville, New Jersey. He loved recounting working in the tomato fields and delivering groceries to Albert Einstein in Princeton as a boy. When Cam was in high school, William accepted a position in the Philippines on the faculty of Silliman University, founded by Presbyterian missionaries in Dumaguete, on the island of Negros. Cam attended high school there and all his life loved telling stories about playing soccer and the time he was gored by a wild boar while hunting with friends. His father conducted field research and published Filipino Music: Indigenious, Folk, Modern. Cam took his own family back to visit the Banaue rice terraces when their daughters were in high and elementary school. Cam returned to the U.S. for college, first at Oberlin where he was a goalie on the soccer team, then at Hastings College. There he met Anita Bradley who would become the love of his life and his spouse for 57 years. They became engaged and immediately after Anita left for a “Junior Year Abroad” in Madras, India. Family lore is that Anita was making sure he really wanted to marry her. When Cam married Anita, he joined a large extended Navajo family of the Tódích'íi'nii (Bitter Water) clan. He personified the role of a good Navajo “in-law,” over the years, offering advice, support, camp fire stories, and much love to Anita’s twelve brothers and sisters and their children and grandchildren. He embraced Navajo language, culture, and ceremonial life, even transportation, as in college when he would hitchhike from his job on a road crew across the reservation to meet Anita for the weekend. Cam and Anita married August 28, 1959 at the Kayenta Presbyterian Church which Anita’s parents, Albert and Alma Bradley, helped found. Because Cam was Anglo and Anita Navajo, the clerk advised them to put down “White” as Anita’s race on their marriage certificate, worried that the marriage violated Arizona’s miscegenation laws. As a husband, Cam was a stalwart supporter of Anita’s career as a prominent Navajo educator. He was the glue that allowed them to raise three successful and much-loved daughters, Tamarah, Michele, and Taasha; two grandchildren, Chad and Reed; and two great-grandchildren, Elliot and Abagail Pfeiffer. They first lived in Tucson where Anita completed her master’s in education and then moved to Rough Rock, Arizona where Anita was Principal of the Rough Rock Demonstration School, the first successful wholly Indian-controlled school in the country. Cam served as Director of Community Services, managing the construction of four adobe homes and assisting with community needs like getting hay for livestock, gathering wood for families, driving patients to medical appointments, writing formal letters, and establishing a Post Office at the school instead of the trading post. Rough Rock was the first big step in Cam and Anita’s lifelong professional commitment to Navajo control of Diné education. The family moved to Massachusetts when his wife was recruited by Harvard for graduate school. They set off cross country with Anita in the station wagon with Tammy and Taasha, Cam and Michele in the U-Haul, then got separated in Tijeras Canyon, not to meet up again until the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Cam was the rock, anchoring the family, making sure they thrived in the turbulence of trouble finding housing and working and building a community. While there, he worked at the Educational Development Center. They moved to Albuquerque when Anita was again recruited, this time to be the first Navajo professor of bilingual education at the University of New Mexico. They turned a rundown and abused property into the beautiful North Valley abode that is still their home forty plus years later, the downpayment coming from money earned selling a tractor Cam had saved up to buy. Cam became a school administrator in the Navajo community of To'hajiilee, then called Cañoncito. He served To'hajiilee for two different stints totaling 17 years, administering the community’s contracts controlling maintenance, food services, and transportation. He became a much appreciated and loved member of the community. Toward the end of his time there, he brought his younger grandson Reed to pre-school every day, spending the sixty-mile round trip spinning stories about everything from Coyote to abridged Phillip K. Dick. In the early 1980’s, Cam was recruited to be an administrator at Navajo Academy when a new Navajo board was taking control of what had previously been a mission school. While there, he helped make a home for his father and step-mother, younger brothers Paul and John and daughters Taasha, Tamarah and grandson Chad. He taught a three year-old Chad how to hunt with a bow and arrow, surprised when Chad brought in a rabbit, shot straight through. At Navajo Academy, as at Rough Rock Demonstration School, and To'hajiilee Community School, Cam was a much valued partner in building strong Navajo educational institutions. More than anything, Cam loved and supported his family. When Anita’s father died, Cam became a surrogate for her brothers and sisters, helping them grow and develop and make their way in the world. He raised daughters with the belief that they could do whatever they set their minds to, instilling in them the love of travel and the unwavering acceptance of all people. He nurtured and helped form grandson Chad from birth and passed along his love of stories to grandson Reed and great grandchildren Elliott and Abagail. He regularly attended his daughters and grandchildren’s concerts, recitals, poetry slams, and athletic events. He welcomed Michele’s husband, Kip Bobroff, into the family and showed him how to be a good Anglo in-law in a Navajo family. Up until the very end of his life, Cam was engaged in the world around him with his sharp mind, humor and imagination. He loved reading, especially science fiction, and world music, especially from Africa. He was a life long soccer fan going back to his own playing days in the Philippines and college. He had lifelong dear friends, especially José Canales and George Willink. At the center of Cam’s long life was his partnership with Anita. His commitment to her and the family they created never wavered. He supported Anita in her work and together they raised and nurtured a strong, loving family. They built a house together at the Bradley property in Kayenta, AZ and a home together wherever they were. From their love grew much more. Cam’s selflessness and contribution to others was never ending. He will be deeply missed and always remembered. Cam is survived by his wife, Anita Bradley Pfeiffer; daughters Tamarah, Taasha, and Michele Pfeiffer; son-in-law Kip Bobroff; grandson Chad Pfeiffer and daughter-in-law Jana and great grandchildren Elliott and Abagail; grandson Reed Bobroff; brothers Mark (and spouse Kate and daughter Debra), Stephen, Gard (and spouse Ris and children Kaui, Claire Anne, Clarissa Mae, and Ella-Ruth) Paul, and John; Nieces Erica Bodo (and spouse Javier Alarcón and children Molly and Frank) and Jessica Wise (and son Kavena Wise) and nephew Chris Lev (and spouse Dana); his favorite cousin, Phil Pfeiffer (and spouse Barbara and children Janet and Chris); his de facto grandson Jason Clay Bobroff; numerous other cousins; and Anita’s siblings Alfred (deceased) Alberta, Angela, Amelia, Amajean, Andrew, Alvin (deceased), Anderson (deceased), Aileen, Albert Jr. (deceased), Aaron, and Arthur and their spouses, children, grandchildren, and great-children. A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, April 15, at 2:00pm at Mesa View United Methodist Church, 4701 Montaño NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Native American Community Academy Foundation “In Memory of Cam Pfeiffer” 1000 Indian School Rd. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104.