Instead, the tiny town has three majorindustries: hunting, fishing and the manufactureof gunstocks, the wooden part of guns. In recentyears, wealthy suburbanites from St. Louis andKansas City in search of fresher air have turnedthe area north of the river into a rich man'sneighborhood, according to Campbell's high schoolguidance counselor, Bill Gott. But Warsaw is stilla place, Campbell says, where school attendancedrops on the first day of deer season.

The Campbell family is as much a part of thelandscape as the dam. His paternal grandfather hadserved as principal at Warsaw High, and Brad grewup on 200 acres of Campbell land about 15 milessouth of town.

Brad's father, Jim Campbell, left Warsaw forcollege and found a teaching job in an affluentsuburb of St. Louis where he met another teacher,Joan Polmantier. Joan grew up in the college townof Columbia, where her father was an educationalpsychologist at the University of Missouri.

They had a Baptist Wedding in Columbia (thoughthe Campbells now belong to the Church of theBrethren), and quickly moved back to Warsaw. Thenewlyweds taught for a year, but soon decided togive up teaching to start an insurance agency.

They have prospered in insurance and in thetown, Warsaw residents say, by virtue of carefulplanning. The night before Brad was born, an icestorm was about to hit southern Missouri. Notwanting to risk the drive in bad weather, theCampbells left early for Sedalia, the site of thenearest hospital 40 miles away. The next day,December 20, 1972, the storm, and Brad, appearedin full force.

Joan stayed home until Brad was old enough togo to school, but she had a passion for politicsthat would be passed on to her son. so the firstcandidate Brad Campbell ever campaigned for was aDemocrat. When brad turned 3, his mother becamethe local campaign chair for Jerry Litton, aconservative Democrat running against RepublicanJohn Danforth. Joan took Brad on the road, as sheput up signs and knocked on doors around thecounty.

After a victory in the Democratic primary, thecampaign ended tragically when Litton was killedin a plane crash. With him died some of Joan'spassion for politics. "The crash is the onlyreason Danforth won," Joan says.

Brad had caught the political bug, however, andduring his childhood he argued tirelessly with hismother, calling her a "closet conservative." Joansays he seems happier now that she is voting forboth Republicans and Democrats.

"Whatever he ends up doing, from the time hewas born, we've known he was a special child," shesays. "We've always felt that he was going to dosomething important."

the Campbells taught their only child torespect other people's values while alwaysstanding up for his own. To give her son her fullattention, Joan didn't return to work until Bradwas ready for elementary school.

"You've got to look at people like me who grewup in the '60s in two ways," Joan Campbell says."We are willing to change and do thingsdifferently. But I still prefer that peoplebelieve in God, believe in family and believe intraditional values. I don't want them to believein Jane Fonda."

Jim Campbell seems to have handled most of thepractical education. Brad says his father taughthim how to fire a gun when he was in second gradebecause "he thought it was irresponsible not toteach a child gun safety." The family keeps 50Angus cattle on its property, and Brad wasexpected to help out. Brad did, though he didn'talways seem enthusiastic. "He doesn't seem to havea big love of working with animals," Joan Says.

In high school, Brad would drive his brown 1978Ford Thunderbird 15 miles to school each day. Histeachers say he was the brightest and mostargumentative student they have ever seen. "Weused Macintosh here," says Bob Lemon, his computerteacher at Warsaw High, "and he's a very strongIBM person. We often talked about it....He's anexceptional personality who could talk to adultsas easily at students."

Campbell didn't play football, a sport sopopular that as many as 60 of the 150 boys in thehigh school suit up for the varsity. Instead, hewas the announcer for a team that has used arun-oriented veer offense to win two statechampionships in the last six years. He alsoedited the school news-paper, the Warsaw Wildcat,and won an award for his regular column" Little tothe Right."

Lemon and others say they were startled whenBrad, who was known as an actor but not a singer,took the leading role of Curly in Oklahoma!during his junior year. Finishing first in hisclass of 80 was no surprise. Owen, the 92-year-oldunofficial town historian, says he can't recallanyone else from Warsaw ever going to the IvyLeague.