Richard K. Campbell

Commissioner of Naturalization, March 4, 1913 - December 21, 1922

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on August 7, 1853, Richard Campbell earned his law degree from the University of Maryland in 1874. After two years in private law practice in Baltimore, he turned to farming and editing in 1876. In 1894 Campbell took a position as an attorney with the U.S. Immigration Service.

In 1905, Campbell served on the Presidential Commission on Naturalization which studied naturalization in the United States and drafted recommended legislation. Congress passed that legislation the next year as the Basic Naturalization Act of 1906, which created the U.S. Naturalization Service. Campbell was named Chief of the new Naturalization Division within the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization.

In 1913, Campbell became Commissioner of the new Bureau of Naturalization when the bureaus split. Campbell remained at the head of the Naturalization Bureau until 1922, when he retired. He died May 24, 1931.

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