150 years of financial aid at Yale Divinity School
Every fall, when the trees of New Haven drop their leaves, Chief of Yale Police Anthony Campbell ’95, ’09 MDiv gains a clear view of Grove Street Cemetery through the window of his office. One round-topped headstone never fails to draw his eye. It marks the grave of Mary Goodman, a free woman of African descent who had worked her entire life in domestic service and as a washerwoman taking in laundry.
When she died in 1872, Goodman bequeathed her life savings to Yale—a total of $5,000—to establish a scholarship fund for students of divinity. Over the last 150 years, her bequest has supported generations of students at Yale Divinity School, including Campbell.
“I sing Mary Goodman’s praises to everyone I can,” he says. “She lived a century before I was born and left a gift that allows me to touch the world I live in, right here, right now. It didn’t take a lot of money, but the impact has gone a long way.”
Campbell, who grew up in Harlem, majored in religious studies at Yale College but abandoned a plan to become a Jesuit priest after meeting and falling in love with his wife. Instead, he joined the New Haven Police Department (NHPD) after graduation, inspired by a recruiting advertisement on the side of a city bus. “The ad showed an African American officer and said, ‘Police others as you would have others police you,’” Campbell recalls. “That resonated with my faith.”
Throughout his early years with the NHPD, Campbell held on to his dream of attending Yale Divinity School; however, he and his wife were now raising two young children, and he had no idea how he’d afford the tuition. Then his acceptance letter arrived, accompanied by a note that he had been selected for the Goodman Scholarship.
“When I say this scholarship blew doors open, it really set my life on a trajectory that it otherwise could not have been on,” he says. “Ninety percent of policing has nothing to do with law enforcement; it’s about being a steward for the community. Every day I use what I learned at the Divinity School. My education there is at the core of who I am and what I do.”
Campbell rose to become chief of the NHPD before retiring in 2019 after a twenty-one-year career. A few months later he joined the Yale Police and was appointed chief in 2022.
“At Yale, parents turn their most valuable assets over to us: their children. It’s our job to make sure students and everyone who is part of this community knows we are watching over them with our eyes and ears and hearts. Mary Goodman’s original act of goodwill has made it possible for me to extend even further what she has done. No matter how big or small, an investment in another person through a bequest can have an enormous impact.”
Yale congratulates Chief Campbell, who will step down from his post on January 2, 2026, after seven years of exemplary service to Yale.