Robert L. Campbell, 74     PORTLAND -- Robert L. Campbell, 74, died Thursday, June 7, 2007, at Mercy hospital in Portland.      A Korean War veteran, he was a career state employee and worked as a legal secretary for many years on the staff of the Maine Unemployment Insurance Commission. He had served in state government for more than 28 years. He was born in Portland, Ore., and first came to Maine in 1954, before moving here permanently in 1974.      He is survived by his wife of 23 years, Karen K. Campbell of Portland; a son, Gabriel John Patrick Chasse of Portland; a step-daughter, Katherine E. (Wood) and her husband Mark Gerardi and their son Anthony Marcus Gerardi, all of Brunswick.     In 1951, he was a participant in Operation GREENHOUSE, at Eniwetok Atoll in the northern Marshall Islands where he witnessed the atmospheric testing of four nuclear weapons, which were experiments leading to the discovery of the trigger device of a hydrogen bomb. From 1978 until his death, Mr. Campbell was involved nationally and internationally in the problems of Atomic Veterans, and most recently was the cofounder of the Atomic Veterans Radiation Research Institute. He has testified numerous times before the Committees on Veterans Affairs in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. As a result of his research, he was an invited presenter at several proceedings of the Institute of Medicine, a subdivision of the National Academy of Sciences. Mr. Campbell was an invited participant in a workshop on funding medical research conducted by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). He was also the cofounder of the Maine Commission on Agent Orange and Atomic Veterans, and was appointed a member by Governor John P. McKernan.     In 1986, he became senior advisor to Citizens Against Nuclear Trash (CANT), which led the successful fight preventing the U.S. Department of Energy in constructing a high-level radioactive waste dump in the Sebago Lake area. Mr. Campbell was also certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs as a service officer. He was medically retired from the Regular Army in 1965, following nearly 18 years of active duty and served in the Pacific, Africa and Europe.     As founder and executive director of Trinity Post 7-45, he led research efforts to assist Atomic Veterans in obtaining documentation to support their claims for benefits. His pioneering work led to the discovery that radiation exposed veterans in the United States,     Robert L. Campbell    Jones, Rich & Hutchins     Funeral Home & Cremation Service    775-3763    the United Kingdom and New Zealand were dying prematurely from all causes at ages seventeen years below the average life span of American males. As a result of his efforts and with the support of Sen. George J. Mitchell, he was successful in getting legislation passed which made former American POW's imprisoned in or near the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki eligible for VA radiation exposure benefits.      He was well known to all members of the Maine congressional delegation. At a 1985 meeting of Atomic Veterans in Maine, he was described by Sen. Mitchell as an insistent and persistent believer in participatory democracy. Then Rep. McKernan said that, upon taking office, that it took his staff two weeks before they learned that Mr. Campbell was not a part of his staff.     Widely quoted in the media, he appeared on several television shows, both in Maine and nationally.     Although a longtime communicant of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke (Episcopal), Mr. Campbell was also ministered to when housebound by St. Albans/Grace Church clergy. He was a life member of AMVETS and the National Association of Atomic Veterans. He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Legion and the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association, and worked closely with Atomic Veterans' organizations in New Zealand and Canada.     Mr. Campbell also served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Radiation Victims. He was the founder of the Queen City Chapter of the Maine State Employees Association and a member of the AFL-CIO Service Employees International Union, and the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization. He was also a member of Hank Beebe's Embassy Players.     A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m., on Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at the Cathedral of St. Luke on State Street in Portland. Interment of his cremated remains will follow in the St. Luke's Memorial Garden. Arrangements are by Jones, Rich & Hutchins Funeral Home, Portland.    In lieu of sending flowers the     family requests that donations be     made in Mr. Robert L.     Campbell's memory to:     Camp Sunshine     35 Arcadia Rd.     Casco, Maine 04015