The Norwich High School (NHS) Hall of Distinction Committee has selected six NHS alumni to be included in the Hall of Distinction. Individuals selected have made outstanding contributions to their chosen fields, including community services, the arts, medical professions, military service, and more, with their contributions having a distinctive impact on a local to global level.

Bonnie Pierce Campbell: Lawyer, politician, and pioneer in preventing violence against women, Class of 1965

By Harry Graves

“One victim at a time. One police officer at a time. One community at a time. Stumping in the manner of an itinerant preacher, Bonnie Campbell is the force behind a grass-roots shift in the way Americans view the victims — and perhaps more important, the perpetrators — of crimes against women.

“Director of the Violence Against Women office at the Justice Department, she is the first person ever to occupy her bully pulpit, handpicked by the President (William Clinton) in 1994 to focus on one of his pet concerns. It is Campbell who applies gentle pressure on Clinton to keep telling the world how his stepfather hit his mother, and Campbell who, by traveling around the country and speaking to small-town sheriffs and big-city D.A.s, is making sure the words domestic violence remain part of the national conversation.

“It is not so much what she says, though, as how she listens that makes Campbell so effective. With gracious self-assurance, she forms unlikely alliances between state troopers and rape victims, prosecutors and hot-line operators. Then she returns to Washington to work with the feds to help put teeth into new laws in the Violence Against Women Act, like the one prohibiting people who violate restraining orders from carrying firearms.

“As part of the 1994 Crime Act, she has some $1.6 billion to divvy up among the states over six years — money that puts beds in shelters and specially trained community police officers on the streets. And amazingly, Campbell then stops by, all the clout of the Attorney General’s office behind her, to help recipients find ways to spend the money effectively. She preaches, then makes sure the conversion goes smoothly.”

That’s what TIME Magazine wrote in its April 21, 1997 issue when it named that year’s 25 most influential Americans.

Also on that list were Gen. Colin Powell, Tiger Woods, Madeleine Albright, Rosie O’Donnell, Don Imus, and Robert Rubin. Not bad company!

In commentary about its list, TIME continued, “These are people who have accomplished something subtle and difficult. They have got other people to follow their lead. They don’t necessarily have the maximum in raw power; instead, they are people whose styles are imitated, whose ideas are adopted and whose examples are followed. Powerful people twist your arm. Influentials just sway your thinking.”

Bonnie J. Pierce was born in Norwich in 1948 and grew up on her grandparents’ farm just off Route 23 out past South Plymouth. Life was not easy for her mother and the Pierce children; all worked long hours for the family’s survival. Classmates recall that Bonnie’s older brother Richard was up early to do the morning milking and chores before heading off to school.

Bonnie graduated from Norwich High School in 1965, the first person in her family to earn a high school diploma. At the age of 17, she immediately headed to “the big city” to find work. Since rural Chenango County at the time was considered part of Appalachia, she qualified for a federal anti-poverty job-recruitment program. NHS Business Teacher Lillian Wasser encouraged Bonnie and other students to apply.

According to several biographies about her, the teen took a long bus ride to Washington, D.C. to find work as a clerk-stenographer for a succession of politicians, including Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and United States Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME). That was the start of her long and distinguished career in public service.

She eventually joined the office of Iowa Senator Harold Hughes as a caseworker from 1969 to 1974. Her work for Hughes took her to Iowa, where she later took a job with Senator John Culver as a field office coordinator from 1974 to 1981.

Along the way, she married political operative Edward L. Campbell, who would be her husband for 35 years until his passing in 2010.

Both Mr. Campbell and his wife were loyal to the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP). Both chaired the IDP, where they became well connected and very popular, so popular that former President Bill Clinton traveled to Des Moines to speak at Mr. Campell’s funeral.

Life in the midwest also opened additional educational opportunities for Bonnie Campbell. She enrolled at Drake University in Des Moines and earned a bachelor's degree in 1982. She subsequently earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Drake University Law School in 1984, then worked as a lawyer in private practice in Iowa from 1985 to 1991.

It had now been over 30 years since that bus ride to Washington, three decades of rubbing shoulders with politicians in both D.C. and Iowa. Therefore, it was not surprising that she was also advancing in Iowa state politics.

In 1990, she was elected Attorney General for the State of Iowa. During her term, she is best remembered for writing an anti-stalking law which became a national blueprint for other states to follow.

After an unsuccessful run for governor in 1994 where she lost to incumbent Terry Branstad, President Bill Clinton tapped her to head the US Department of Justice’s newly-created Office on Violence Against Women. It was that position that prompted the recognition from TIME Magazine.

On March 2, 2000, President Clinton nominated Campbell to a judgeship in the Eighth Circuit. Despite backing from both of Iowa’s Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, the Republican-led committee targeted her nomination and it never came up for a vote.

Her Norwich classmates remember Bonnie as a quiet but hard-working student. When discussing her accomplishments with fellow-graduate Dave Ring, he chuckled at the mention of South Plymouth in her biography. “The hamlet of Kirk would be closer to their farm,” he said.

South Plymouth or Kirk, I’m confident the residents of either community will be happy to take credit for influencing the accomplishments of Bonnie Pierce Campbell.

Bonnie will be inducted into the Norwich High School Hall of Distinction on October 24, at 1 p.m. in the Norwich High School Library. The event is open to the public.

The NHS Hall of Distinction Committee aims to recognize and commemorate alumni of Norwich high schools who have made outstanding contributions in the areas of, but not limited to, profession, community service, commerce, religion, and art. Established in 2024, this Hall of Distinction is intended to serve as a vision and source of pride for our community and student body.

To nominate an NHS alum for the Hall of Distinction, complete the nomination form found at norwichcsd.org/documents/district/211781 and submit to NCSD Event Coordinator Rich Turnbull at rturnbull@norwichcsd.org, or drop it off at the District Office at 89 Midland Drive.