PORT ANGELES — In his early 60s, Robert Campbell decided to make a major career change — leaving behind an engineering occupation and diving headfirst into fisheries management.
Now, after 13 years working for the Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles — and earning the nickname “Spongebob” — Campbell is again making a major transition: retirement.
Today marks the last day on the job as facilities director for Campbell, 72, of Port Angeles.
He will be succeeded by Tamara Galvan, a current Feiro volunteer, who was hired after a July search and interview process, according to Melissa Williams, executive director of the center on City Pier, 315 N. Lincoln St.
“I am old enough I can just retire,” Campbell said Thursday during an interview at the center.
He said what he will miss most is “the people, of course. They are some great folks.”
Born in Chateau Gay, located in upstate New York near the Canadian border, he pursued an engineering degree at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, after high school.
At that time, Campbell had no interest in a career in marine wildlife.
“I didn’t even know what marine life was,” he said. “I was raised on a dairy farm.”
After earning his degree, Campbell went to work in the upper Midwest for various foundries, a career that would span four decades.
When the industry was declining heavily, Campbell decided to pursue a new career.
“In the early 2000s, things were going sour,” he said.
“If you were in heavy industry, you were in trouble. Jobs went overseas. I decided to get out of the business.”
Campbell “started looking around for schools that were geared more toward the outdoors,” he said.
That search led him to Peninsula College, which at that time offered a two-year degree in fisheries technology, he said.
In his early 60s, Campbell said he was definitely the oldest student in the course.
“It was a challenge,” he said.
He began working at Feiro in June 2003, he said, and has “been here ever since.”
Tense years
Campbell said he had some tense years from 2006 to 2008 because the future of the center was in question.
“It was a period of time when they were trying to decide what they were going to do with this,” he said.
“I was asked to keep it operable while they decided what to do with it.”
The center later became a nonprofit organization and was saved, he said.
Throughout the years, Campbell has become a fixture at the center, Williams said.
His legacy includes educating youths and adults about the wonders of the sea, she said.
Campbell also has kept the water flowing and the tanks full of interesting marine life, even if that meant coming in at 2 a.m. to deal with a water emergency, Williams said.
A typical day for Campbell began with a walk-through of the facility to ensure everything was operating correctly, something he said he could determine just from the sound.
“I know every noise this place makes,” he said.
As for the nickname Spongebob — a reference to the Nickelodeon cartoon character — Campbell said he does not recall how it got started or who minted the term of endearment. However, he does go by “Bob” for short and regularly cleans out the sponge tanks — a possible reason he received the moniker.
Campbell leaves behind a legacy of accomplishments.
In 2012, he was one of four area residents recognized by the Puget Sound Partnership as a Puget Sound Champion for his work in stewardship and education.
Besides finding his voice as a teacher, Bob also became an “octopus whisperer,” Williams said.
From finding to caring for to releasing each giant Pacific octopus housed at the center, he developed a close rapport with the species — not to mention cultivating a great deal of patience as he waited for them to climb into and out of their transport carriers on their way back to the Strait, she said.
“It has gotten with me so that with whatever octopus we have at the time, I have been the primary keeper of it,” Campbell said.
“I have gradually been giving” that responsibility to other employees.
For more information about the center, visit www.feiromarinelifecenter.org or call 360-417-6254.
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Features Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or at cmcdaniel@ peninsuladailynews.com.
