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Longtime journalist and recovery center founder John Camp dies at 88
BATON ROUGE — John Camp, an award-winning journalist who once was a member of the WBRZ family and one of the founders of O'Brien House, a recovery center for alcoholics and drug addicts, has died. He was 88.
He died Thursday night, three days after entering hospice care, his son-in-law Matt Galey said. Camp had been hospitalized with pneumonia and had cancer that had spread significantly.
Camp had many visitors in the past few days, Galey said, people who shared wonderful stories about the difference he made in their lives. Sometimes it was through journalism. Sometimes it was through sobriety.
He also spent time with his daughters, who were with him when he died.
"I am grateful to have time with my dad," daughter Patti Galey said. "It was a blessing to both of us to have that time together and I'm going to miss him every day."
Camp was honored last week by the announcement that a treatment meeting room at O'Brien House would be named for him.
Matt Galey said Camp prized his work with O'Brien House even over his many professional accolades, explaining that Camp had been sober for 53 years.
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Services will be held at First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge on Friday, February 2, with visitation starting at 10 a.m. and a celebration of his life at 11 a.m. Camp will be buried with military honors at Louisiana National Cemetery at 1 p.m. later that same day.
Camp's family asked that, instead of flowers, people could donate to the John Camp Great Room Renovation Project at O'Brien House Recovery Center in Baton Rouge. Donations can be made here.
When the project was announced, O'Brien House Executive Director Emily Tilley said Camp did life-saving work in that room.
"This is the room that Mr. John would come every month meet with the clients, tell his story, teach them about recovery," she said.
During his journalism career, Camp won four Peabody awards and two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia awards, among many, many others.
He left WBRZ for CNN in 1989, becoming the senior investigative correspondent for the network.
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