W. Campton Bell Papers

William Campton Bell was born in Fort Collins, Colorado January 20, 1905. He received his BA from what was then Colorado A & M in 1927. After college, Bell wrote for a newspaper in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and later wrote for the local newspaper and taught school in Kemmerer, Wyoming. It was there that he was put in charge of dramatic productions and found his life's work. He received an MA from Northwestern University and founded the school of theatre at Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. He joined the University of Denver in 1937. In 1941 he received his doctorate from Northwestern. At the University of Denver, he became Professor of dramatic Arts in 1942 and the theatre department split from the speech department. He was one of the founders of the Children's Theatre Foundation. He was president of the American Alliance of Theatre and Education in 1950-1951. A Scholarship awarded by that organization carries his name. He was the 1963-1964 University Lecturer at the University of Denver. He died at the age of 58 on December 7, 1963.