Albert S. Camplese

Albert S. Camplese

Darrell E. Hamilton

Albert Stephen Camplese was born on March 30, 1958 in Ashtabula, Ohio to Albert N. and Delores Genevieve Walker Camplese. Albert is the oldest of three children. He has a brother, Dennis who lives in Nashville and a sister, Rena, the youngest, who lives in Cincinnati.

Albert’s father’s family came from Italy around the turn of the century. His mother and her family came from West Virginia.

In the early fifties, Albert’s mother’s brother Robert moved to Cleveland to find a job. Robert sent word back to Albert’s mother that there was a lot of work in Northeastern Ohio. Delores (Gen) went to Cleveland and heard that Molded Fiber Glass and Iten Fiber in Ashtabula were hiring. She was hired at Iten Fiber and then moved to Ashtabula in 1954. She hooked up with a friend of hers who was also from West Virginia. Gen and her friend, Nadine, shared an apartment above Felix’s Pizza at the corner of Benefit and Prospect Avenues.

Gen’s father was a coal miner in West Virginia. Her mother died when she was twelve years old. Gen and her two brothers were raised for a time by aunts and uncles.

A few years ago, Albert took his mother back to West Virginia to visit relatives. Albert’s cousin tookhim to the location where his mother and uncles grew up. His mother and uncles were raised near a mountain top in a cabin with no running water or inside toilet facilities. The cabin was located in a very rugged area where they had to walk miles to school or to a store. They had to walk literally over the river and through the woods.

At the same time Gen was working at Iten Fiber, Albert’s father was working at Tikem (Rockwell). Albert’s father was one of eight children, five boys and three girls. Albert’s grandparents came from Italy and settled in an area in Ashtabula once called forty acres. This is the area between Station and Lake Avenues.

Albert’s grandparents, Luciano and Rose lived on West 38^th Street. Luciano worked for the New York Central Railroad.

Albert’s father, Albert N. Camplese meet his future wife, Gen, at a dance. They began dating and were married in 1956 at the old Mt. Carmel Church.

In about 1962 Albert’s father left Rockwell and started his own business. He named his business Ashtabula Specialties which was later on changed to Camplese Specialties. Camplese Specialties was a wholesale distributor of Potato Chips and other snack food items. His warehouse was located where Pizza Hut is now.

Albert lived the first fourteen years of his life at the Corner of Woodman and Prospect Avenues where the Car Wash sits now. At the time the Campleses moved to Prospect, the area was a very nice residential area. The only commercial activity near them at the time on Prospect was Lantz’s Gulf and Strawsburg Grocery.

Albert started kindergarten at Bunker Hill School. His first school teacher was Mrs. Margaret Payne. Mrs. Payne was also his father’s teacher in her first year as a teacher. She also taught his brother Dennis and his sister Rena in her last year of teaching.

The next year Albert started school at Mt. Carmel and attended Mt. Carmel from first through eighth grade. I ask Albert if he could remember all of his school teachers. He said he could remember every one of them and proceeded to name them. Most of the people that I have interviewed can remember all or almost all of their teachers’ names and many have made a profound effect on them.

While in school, Albert delivered newspapers for the Star Beacon in the McNutt-Dunbar-Douglas area.

Albert had a variety of pets while growing up. There were two dogs of the beagle breed, Daisy andSuzy and a black cat named Niki. Albert also had a variety of smaller animals while growing up.

In the summer, Albert and his brother would often accompany their father on his route. They visitedmany parts of Ashtabula and meet many people on their father’s route. Francine, Tom Simon’s sister would often baby sit Albert and his siblings.

Within a two block area, Albert, Tom Simon, Jeff Ford and Jerry Rocco lived. They never spoke to each other about becoming an attorney. All of them left and came back as attorneys.

While the neighborhood was still mostly residential, Albert enjoyed playing with his friends. As the neighborhood became more commercialized, and his friends moved away, Albert became more and more fascinated with books. Sometimes he would read several at time and almost anything he could find. Albert was very academically oriented. He received a one hundred dollar scholarship to attend St. John.

In 1972, the Campleses moved to South Ridge East where his parents still live today.

Albert started St. John High School in 1972. He played football, basketball, track and tennis. He was president of his class and served in the National Honor Society. He graduated in 1976.

Albert received scholarship to Ohio Northern. He graduated cum laude in 1980 with a degree in Business Administration.

Albert had planned to go to law school right out of college. However while he was in the process ofapplying to law schools, he had a friend who was studying architecture in Florence, Italy. His friend called him and tried to convince him to come over and they would travel the world. Albert said he couldn’t because he was in the process of applying to law schools. His friend kept phoning him for three weeks. The temptation was too great. Finally Albert agreed to take some time off and travel with his friend.

Albert took all of money out the bank and sold just about everything he had that was worth anything. Him and his friend backpacked across Europe and visited almost every country in Europe. They visited a total of 31 countries once they crossed Asia. They flew to Hawaii and from there Albert finally arrived in Ashtabula.

Once Albert was home, he had to go to work to earn enough money to go to law school. Albert had worked at several different jobs while he was in school. During the summer months in college, Albert worked at Inland Container until it closed. He painted houses with his brother and later worked at the Perry Nuclear Plant in construction.

Albert was accepted to Cleveland Marshall Law School. While he was there he worked for theHighway department fifty hours a week and was paid very good money. While in law school, Albert hadto give up his high paying job with the Highway department to become a six dollar an hour law clerk.

In 1985 Albert graduated law school and passed the bar exam. He immediately went to work for the city of Ashtabula as assistant city solicitor also known as the city prosecutor. Tom Simon was the city solicitor when Albert became city prosecutor.

In 1986 Albert married Jane Stimson. On August 7, 1990, Taylor Jane was born to Albert and Jane.

Judge Olson was the Judge of the Municipal Court when Albert became city prosecutor. Albert learned a lot working with Judge Olson. Albert stated, "Working with Judge Olson was a good experience. He had all the right principals."

After eight years as city prosecutor, Albert decided to run for the remaining two years left on Judge Hague’s term. He was elected and then re-elected in 1995 and again in 2001.

Case loads in the Municipal Court are very heavy. Between 11,000 and 15,000 cases come through the court system in a year. The introduction of magistrates helped Judge Camplese a great deal.

I ask Albert about some of the memorable cases in his court room. He had plenty of them to share but one of them stood out above the rest. I thought I’d share it with you in Albert’s own words.

"In the old Municipal building, a lady came before me on a charge of running a stop sign. I had been on the bench about six months. I ask her how she wanted to plea. She said that she didn’t think she was guilty because she slowed down and looked both ways. I smiled at the defendant and said that there isn’t a person in the court room that hasn’t gone through a stop sign. Again I ask her how she pleaded and the defended repeated the same story.

Albert sat and thought how he could get his point across to this lady that she didn’t stop.

"You just told me two times that you didn’t come to a complete stop. The law says you have to come to a complete stop. Unfortunately for you there is a big difference between slowing down and coming to a complete stop."

"To demonstrate this point, this is what I propose we do."

"I’ll have the officer in the back of the room to come up here. When he gets up here, I’m going to have him take his night stick out and start hitting you."

"After he’s got four or five good whacks in, do you want me to ask him to stop or slow down? "

"The court room was dead quiet."

"After he’s got four or five good whacks in, do you want me to ask him to stop or slow down? "

"The court room exploded with laughter. The doors blew open and two officers ran into the court room with guns drawn. The room was in such a ruckus. The officers didn’t know what was going on."

"After ten minutes some people in the court room were still laughing."

"The women’s face was beet red. Needless to say, the women pleaded guilty."

In closing the interview, Albert closed with some words of wisdom that his father often shared withhim. "Long after the pole has rotted away, the hole will still be there."

"I didn’t really understand what it meant and thought it was stupid when I first heard it. I spent a lot of time thinking about it over the years."

"Whatever you do as in the pole leaves an impression long after that pole or act or deed is done. It has a lasting effect on people. When you go through life, you want to leave a good impression."

I want to thank Mr. Camplese for taking time out of his busy schedule for the interview.

In closing, Albert said, "Is all well and good, I must tend to my beans."


*Albert - 1976 St. John*		Albert - Ashtabula Municipal Court Judge