Adah Jane Campbell

CAMPBELL, JANE Jane Hight Campbell, age 85, of Waco, passed away Saturday, October 4, 2003 at a local hospital. Graveside services will be Thursday, October 9 at Southland Memorial Park in Grand Prairie with the Rev. Dan White officiating. Visitation will be 6-8pm Wednesday, October 8 at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey, 6101 Bosque Blvd. Jane Hight Campbell was born, May 22, 1918 in Grand Prairie to George Alexander Lee Hight and Ann Luvenia Howell. Jane could stand the sight of blood…which was mighty fortunate for all the rest of us. Just years before World War II when she had just graduated from the University of Texas with a Major in Bacteriology and had enrolled in Baylor Hospital School of Technology she worked under the renowned Dr. Joseph Hill, who, in addition to his Leukemia Research, was Director of Baylor Hospital Clinic Laboratory, where Jane became deeply involved in the research which was to find a way to store blood. Out of their work came the Wadley Center at Baylor Hospital. Jane was in charge of the original blood bank and plasma drying adevac process-the first woman in this capacity. Working with many associates, including Sal Haverman, they developed a process for drying blood plasma. In the beginning, they used a cream separator- a hand turned machine which many farmers used to separate butter fat from milk. It worked! The process was tedious and archaic compared with modern techniques, but it paved the way for storing blood…until that time, blood had to be transfused directly from one person to another. With World War II underway, the process made battlefield transfusions practical, and undoubtable saved tens of thousands of lives. Jane, along with an engineer, Mr. Peiffer, who’d helped develop the machine, and Dr. Eric Muirhead, who was to demonstrate it, they carried the clumsy blood separator device to the American Medical Association meeting in 1941. It was within a month, July 1941, when Jane found time to marry Richard Campbell, and after the war, they settled in Waco. Some time, and one child, Rick, later, Jane worked in the local Red Cross Blood Center under Mary Knipper. She was there when the tornado struck downtown Waco in 1953 and it was from that 18th Street location that much nonstop activity took place during the frenzied week following that disaster. Jane’s life took her to other Texas cities, but it was Waco that she and her family came back to. In 1987, Jane was awarded the Pathfinder Award in Technology. She was a member of the First Baptist Church and Tejanos Study Club. She also volunteered for Meals for Wheels. She was preceded in death by her parents, and husband, Richard R. Campbell, Jr. Jane is survived by son, Richard R. Campbell, III of Waco; sister, Ruth Knott of Seguin and brother, Thomas H. Hight of Eustace and several nieces, nephews and cousins. Memorials may be made to American Red Cross, 4224 Cobbs Drive, Waco, Texas 76710 or American Heart Association, 6801 Sanger Avenue, Waco, Texas 76710. The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our “Memorial Guestbook” at www.wilkirsonhatchbailey.com. WILKIRSON-HATCH-BAILEY