Carroll Ashmore Campbell Jr. (July 24, 1940December 7, 2005), was an American Republican Party politician who served as the 112th governor of South Carolina from 1987 to 1995. Prior to this, he served as a member of the South Carolina Senate representing the 2nd district from 1977 to 1978 and as a congressman representing South Carolina's 4th district from 1979 to 1987. Early life Campbell was born in Greenville, South Carolina, the oldest of six children. His father, Carroll A. Campbell Sr., worked in the textile mills and the furniture business, and later owned a motel in Garden City, South Carolina. Campbell grew up in Greenville and the nearby cities of Liberty and Simpsonville. He attended Greenville Senior High School, dropping out during a period that The Greenville News characterized as an "unsettled adolescence amid a disintegrating family"; his uncle then enrolled him at the private McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended the University of South Carolina at Columbia but withdrew because of financial concerns and later graduated with a Master of Arts degree from American University. While a student at South Carolina, he became a member of the Sigma chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Early political career In 1970, Campbell took a leading role opposing the racial integration of public schools in Greenville. He spoke to a crowd of thousands in front of Parker High School against integration, and on January 25 he led a motorcade of 800 vehicles to the state capitol in Columbia to protest "forced busing" of students to integrated schools. Campbell served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1970 to 1974 during the administration of Governor John C. West, who defeated Republican nominee Albert Watson, the choice of U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, in the 1970 South Carolina gubernatorial election. With Lee Atwater as a key political strategist, he made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 1974 on the ticket headed by Republican James B. Edwards of Charleston. While Edwards was elected, Campbell lost to the Democrat Brantley Harvey; despite the loss Campbell would continue to seek Atwater's counsel throughout his career. From 1976 to 1978, during the Edwards administration, he served in the South Carolina Senate. In between his two stints in the General Assembly, he served as executive assistant to Governor Edwards. In 1978, Campbell won election to the United States House of Representatives from the Greenville-based South