OBITUARY: Former Drug Store Owner John Maurice Campbell, 86, of Rockledge, Passed Away Aug. 23
By Space Coast Daily // August 28, 2020
had a lifelong passion for football – played center for the Cocoa Tigers in early 1950s
BREVARD COUNTY • ROCKLEDGE, FLORIDA – John Maurice Campbell, 86, of Rockledge, FL was taken home to be with the Lord Sunday, August 23, 2020, with his family at his side, at home.
Born May 30, 1934, in Orlando, FL Maurice was a rare Florida native for his generation.
He moved to Cocoa in 1937 when his father ME “Doc” Campbell took over a drugstore downtown at the corner of Brevard Avenue and Harrison Street. In his words “it was a great place to grow up.”
He was here all his life, except for 4 years of service in the United States Air Force, schooling at the University of Florida and then the Southern College of Pharmacy for Mercer University in Atlanta, GA where he and his wife Renee graduated with degrees in Pharmacy.
Upon returning to the area, they opened Campbell’s Drug Store on US 1 in Rockledge and operated the store for 31 years until it closed in 1994.
Maurice worked one of the 2 pharmacists shifts. Often when customers came in there was a conversation, not just picking up their medication as he rarely met a stranger for long.
Maurice had a lifelong passion for football, having played center for the Cocoa Tigers in high school.
If customers were a Gator fan, he would talk about the great season that passed or the great season to come. If they were a Seminole fan, there was much ribbing to be done back and forth with the rivalry over the years.
When he was not working, he frequently could be found, in the warmer months, fishing with friends and family out of Port Canaveral or Captiva Island near Fort Myers.
In the cooler months he enjoyed hunting in both Florida and Georgia. He enjoyed having a vegetable garden for many years and was especially known for doing well with his tomatoes.
In later years he enjoyed playing cards with friends. Maurice was preceded in death by his parents Maurice and Gladys, his wife Renee, and his daughter Shelle Campbell-Proctor.
He is survived by his son Craig (Karlene) of Mechanicsburg, PA who will receive friends Friday, August 28 at American Burial and Cremation: 1200 South US Hwy 1 in Rockledge from 2 pm to 4 pm and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Visitors are asked to please wear a mask, social distance and respect a limited visitation period).
Maurice was a longtime member of the First Baptist Church of Cocoa and the funeral service will be held there Saturday, August 29 at 11 am.
The service will be streamed for those unable to attend at https://www.facebook.com/firstbaptistcocoa/ and will be available afterwards at https://www.cocoabaptist.org/memorialservice .
Interment will be at Florida Memorial Gardens in Rockledge, FL. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the First Baptist Church of Cocoa Building Fund: 750 Brevard Ave., Cocoa, FL 32922, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
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