(20 April 1904-10 July 1988), teacher, principal. (C.C. Fraser, Campbell Fraser, Cam Fraser, C. Campbell Fraser) Born at Mongenais, Que., a few miles east of GC. Parents: D.W. Fraser, a shoemaker and storekeeper, and his wife Mary MacRae. D.W. Fraser had a store at Mongenais, an almost wholly French-speaking area, from 1871 to 1904. Campbell Fraser later wrote with regard to his father’s experience at Mongenais that “the kindness that he and all our family received from our French neighbours was boundless.” (Glengarry News 7 Dec. 1977) Campbell Fraser in conversation added another detail, the kindness of the French women to his mother in childbirth. Leaving Mongenais, D.W. Fraser moved to Dalkeith and after a few years to Glen Sandfield. At Glen Sandfield he operated a store till his death in 1925. He sold his store in Mongenais in 1904 to a Mr Lalonde who later transported the building to Alexandria. In the 1990s the building still stood on the Main Street of Alexandria, and housed a store operated by Bruno Lalonde of the same Lalonde family.

     Campbell Fraser was educated at the primary school at Glen Sandfield, at Alexandria High School and University College, University of Toronto (graduated 1926) and the Ontario College of Education. He taught at Brockville Collegiate Institute for seven years. Afterwards, from 1934 (Glengarry News 13 July 1934) he was private secretary to George T. Fulford (MLA and MP for Leeds, and son of the manufacturer Senator Fulford) for eight years. The legend later grew up among his GC friends that Campbell Fraser missed a brilliant opportunity to launch himself in politics through the Fulford employment. At any rate, he met Mackenzie King during these years. He recalled how difficult it was to entertain Mackenzie King, who had no small talk. When he had to take his turn one day of doing so, he rejoiced when King finally announced he had papers to read and so ended the ordeal. Campbell Fraser served in the Canadian Army 1942-1945 on the Directorate of Personnel Selection, achieving the rank of captain.

     On leaving the Army he joined the staff of Sir George Williams College in Montreal as a counsellor in the college’s Rehabilitation School for returning war veterans. In 1947 he began teaching in Alexandria High School, and in 1949 he became vice-principal (J.T. Smith being principal). In the 1950s the school moved from its old location near the Cathedral to its present home on Main Street and the name was changed from Alexandria High School to Glengarry District High School. Campbell Fraser was principal 1960-1965. He retired in 1965. (Glengarry News 18 Feb.& 11 March 1965) In 1969 he was called back from retirement to act as principal on a temporary basis. (Glengarry News 13 March & 3 April 1969) Campbell Fraser spent his retirement years at Glen Sandfield and Alexandria. He died at Glengarry Memorial Hospital, Alexandria. He belonged to the United Church of Canada. Burial was at Kirk Hill United Church Cemetery. He never married.

     Campbell Fraser was active as a federal and provincial Liberal Party official in the GC area of Eastern Ontario for many years. He never held public office but was well known locally as one of the diehards and workhorses of the party. For his students, the role in the Liberal Party strengthened his image as a suave man of the world. He was active in the Lions Club, Alexandria, and was a charter member 1953, and president of the club 1954-1955. He published notes on the history of Glen Sandfield (Glengarry News 16 March 1967), a sketch of the history of Lochiel Township (Glengarry Historical Society, 12th Annual Volume, 1972), and A Short History of the Glensandfield United Church 1880-1975 (pp. 42; 1975). He was one of the original directors of the Glengarry Historical Society. (GN 22 March 1962) Well known as a source for GC history, like Eugene Macdonald he was one of the people who read and commented on the MacGillivray and Ross history of GC in 1978, the year before its publication. In appearance he was a small and intense man, and he liked to wear a bow tie, being the kind of man who could do so well.

     He was widely regarded, and probably correctly, as a man of exceptional talents who never made sufficient use of them. (For other GC examples, see the entries for David Fraser the accountant and George Hopper McGillivray) Being of an intellectual cast of mind, he read a good deal. In travel, he was evidently not much interested. As a school administrator and classroom keeper-of-order, he was a disciplinarian of biting speech who nevertheless seemed never to cause lasting offence. As a teacher of history and English, absolutely superb is hardly a strong-enough phrase to describe Campbell Fraser. Even in a high school which (either because of or despite its tyrannical principal J.T. Smith) excelled in good teaching, Fraser stood out as special. Even people who might otherwise have come in their later years to scorn the ever-fashionable praise of good school teaching as mere claptrap found that they were forced to look back on Fraser’s classes as major events in their own lives.

     Campbell Fraser’s brother John A. Fraser (d. 12 Oct.1985, in his 90th year) was a WWI veteran and was one of the rare Glengarry Scots of his time who could speak French. After his father’s death in 1925 he took over the store at Glen Sandfield and operated it till he retired in 1967 (he was also the post master at Glen Sandfield). John’s son Stanley, like his uncle Campbell, was a well-known vice-principal of Glengarry District High School. In the 1970s, John, who was then a widower, and Campbell were sharing an apartment in Alexandria. Another brother, Stanley, was killed in the First World War.

Glengarry News 13 July 1988 * private information, personal knowledge * lives of the two Fulfords in Johnson (1968) * Alexandria High School 1894-1954: 1981 Reunion (1981) * MacGillivray & Ross 256 (portrait) * “Moderate Speaks Up,” letter by Fraser Glengarry News 7 Dec. 1977 on the language issue in GC; important and interesting * sharp, aggressive letter, cutting and insistent, characteristic of one side of the man, by Fraser repelling newspaper criticisms of the Liberal Party organization, GN 8 June 1977 * Fraser’s tribute to the late Donald B. MacDonald, called “Dan Baker,” warden of SDG and reeve of Lochiel, GN 24 Feb. 1955 * interview with Fraser recorded for the Multicultural History Society of Ontario 1 May 1978 * president, Lions Club, GN 13 May 1954, 12 Aug. 1954, 28 April 1955 * was perhaps principal author of hist. of Lions Club (“Lions Celebrate First Quarter Century”) published in GN 8 Nov. 1978? * high school year books, such as those for 1953, 1954, Alexandria * testimonial dinner on retirement, GN 10 June 1965 * obituary of John A. Fraser, GN 23 Oct. 1985 * advert. for auction sale of contents, general store Glen Sandfield, includes “general store sign DW Fraser (iron letters),” GN & Vankleek Hill Review both 17 July 2002