Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 28, 1995                   TAG: 9502280093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: INDEPENDENCE                                 LENGTH: Short

GRAYSON LAWYER CHOSEN AS JUDGE

He will succeed Judge Willis A. Woods of Wytheville, who is retiring. It will be the first time since Judge Jack Matthews retired in 1978 that one of the circuit's four judges is based in Grayson County. Woods was preceded by R. William Arthur, also of Wytheville.

Campbell said Monday he would serve as a judge in the counties of Wythe, Bland and Grayson, as his predecessors have, unless the other three judges in the circuit have other ideas.

The vote Saturday in the House of Delegates was 98-0 in favor of Campbell, with two absent, and 39-0 in the Senate, with one absent.

Campbell and Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe were the two contenders for the judgeship, after Frank Slavin, another Wytheville lawyer, dropped out. The circuit covers the counties of Bland, Carroll, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski and Wythe and the cities of Galax and Radford. Campbell had the endorsement of all the bar associations except for Pulaski County, which went for Crewe.

Originally, Campbell was backing someone else for the judgeship. But members of his local bar association suggested that he run. ``They kind of drafted me,'' he said.

Campbell is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and its law school. He has been active in a number of civic activities and was chairman of the county Republican Party until he resigned to seek the judgeship.