About Us
Ken Campbell
I was born in the middle of World War II and grew up in Weirton, West Virginia, at that time a thriving steel town and “Home of the Mighty Tin Can!” I graduated from Weir High School, the 2nd largest high school in the state.
I was there during a truly amazing period. Academics, arts and athletics were well-balanced in my life. I was an officer in the school band, and we traveled to Pasadena, California, for the world-renowned Tournament of Roses Parade. We were judged Top Band. The next fall we participated in New York City’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and we won Top Band again. Next we flew to Europe for the prestigious World Amateur Music Festival in Kerkrad, Holland, and returned with the “Queen’s Trophy” as Top Band.
Our school graduated the highest percentage of freshman, sent the highest percentage to college, and had the highest SAT scores in the State. Two state championships in football, and one each in basketball, baseball, track, wrestling, and golf were achieved during my years there.
It was this solid background that profoundly instilled in me, the strongest possible sense of “Anything’s Possible,” and “If You’re In It, Win It!”
I received an alternate appointment to the USAF Academy, but failed the physical for having flat feet. I waited a few weeks and enlisted in the US Army Reserve when I was a high school senior. While completing Advanced Training in Armor, I was approached by the exclusive Army Security Agency. I was informed that I had qualified for service in the Agency. I told them of my intentions to enter college at the end of my Reserve Active Duty.
When the Cuban Missile Crisis took the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust, I requested a discharge from the Reserve to enlist in the Regular Army’s Army Security Agency (ASA). I served more than eight years, mostly with the 51st Special Operations Command, based on Okinawa, and helped conduct classified missions throughout the Far East. My assignments carried me to Viet Nam (6 times – from 9 days to 2 months in duration), Cambodia, Tailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, The Phillipine Islands, New Zealand and Australia. I was Honorably Discharged after nearly ten years of service as a Master Sergeant (E-8).
The years after the service brought various jobs with MetLife (District Manager), American Realty Service Corp. (Marketing Director), McCullough Properties (Director of Special Flights), Energy Products, Inc. (President & Marketing Director, Natural Vitamins & Health Food Sales, Multi-Level Marketing), K.E. Campbell & Assoc., Inc. (Founder, President, Designer/Builder of high-end, residential homes), Perry County Cheese Co. (Executive VP & Director of Marketing, Institutional Fund Raising).
Along the way, I have had a variety of physical hurdles including Type II Diabetes which I contracted as the result of exposure to Agent Orange in Viet Nam. I have experienced nearly all the side-effects which have left me in end-stage renal failure and on dialysis since September 2001. I am mostly blind, with my inner-ear nerves destroyed resulting in no balance or equilibrium. I am a double amputee and am missing my right hip joint. I have numerous other maladies which have required serious surgeries and long rehabilitations.
These challenges have given me ample time to get my “spiritual self” aligned with thought, reflection, meditation, and prayer.
My personal life has included the death of my wife, Carol Ann. We were married nearly 23 years when she succumbed to a malignant brain tumor at age 42. She is the mother of our two sons (Jeff, 46 and Bob, 44) of whom I’m immensely proud. Her passing ended her distinguished nursing career. I loved her with every fiber of my being. Without our mutual faith and beliefs, her death would have been the end for me.
Finally, I truly consider myself extremely blessed in spite of it all! I have experienced clinical death more than a dozen times, each time returning to choruses from doctors, nurses, aides, friends, neighbors and extended family that, “Your mission here isn’t completed!” I hope to have played a small part in the huge task of Restoring Common Sense in our country for future generations.
Addendum to My Bio
Since l went on dialysis in September 2001, thinking has occupied at least 90% of my time. A little over a year ago, I began to formulate the concept of Restoring Common Sense. People in my life were constantly referring to me as a one-man think-tank; thus evolved the nickname “Lean, Mean Thinking Machine”. (I don’ t consider myself mean, but a few of my young troops, from my Army days as M/Sgt. Campbell, would likely debate that issue with you!). New ideas came to mind daily, that I would pass along to various friends to apply to their businesses, if they so chose. Many found them quite innovative and wove them into their business practices.
When we birthed our Website, RestoringCommonSense.org, we decided to call ourselves, tongue in cheek, a Washington think-tank, (Washington, Pennsylvania,where I now live that is!) We carried the name, Lean, Mean Thinking Machine over to identify our operation.
A personal note; my physical situation has recently made a hard left, and headed South at a high rate of speed. When I was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure in 2001, the docs said I could expect 3 to 5 years survival. Now, they’re saying a matter of weeks – a few months, best case. Well, I’m hoping they’re as accurate now as they were then! I’m full speed ahead – planning for the worst, but expecting the very best!
Should we never have the opportunity to meet personally, (on this side) stay true to this Cause, this Mission, but most of all, stay true to YOURSELF!
“RESTORING COMMON SENSE” is clearly one of the very most important causes you could ever commit yourself to, outside of your family or your Church!
When achieved, RESTORING COMMON SENSE, will restore SANITY to our Beloved Nation!
Steve Booth
I was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1942, on Valentine’s Day, which set me up for a lifetime of clever remarks from family and friends. I was the oldest of six kids, plus my parents and a grandmother, nine of us in a three-bedroom 
house with only one bathroom. Talk about early-morning chaos! At age 12, I cleaned cars at a gas station for $1.00-an-hour. From that time on I was never broke. North High School bored me, so, as a senior, I took tests to win my diploma. Then I joined the Navy on Aug. 29, 1959, and served for 20 years.
Boot camp was at San Diego, California, a drastic change from my hometown. I trained in communications, which sent me over much of the world. When the Soviets tried to establish missiles in Cuba in 1962, I found myself handling communications between Guantanamo Bay and the Kennedy White House. The era became famous as “The Cuban Missile Crisis.” I later handled communications for the first Telstar satellite and the Gemini and Apollo space programs. Those were rewarding years.
Uncle Bill Leachman, himself a high ranking World War Two officer, mentored me back into civilian life. An active leader, he served on the Des Moines city council, negotiated union contracts, Davis-Bacon regulations, OSHA and other government issues. This made me very aware of the relationship between government and the private sector.
In the early 1980s I was introduced to Ken Campell, a vice-president of marketing for a fund-raising company. I managed a five-state sales force for some time. Ken and I have remained friends ever since, often exchanging thoughts on national and international affairs.
In 1987 I established a successful real estate and home-building business. I became active in the Home Builders Association and the Association of Realtors, often working with the Iowa Legislature on matters relating to real estate sales and home construction.
Cheryl, my wife of 38 years, joined me in these businesses 15 years ago. (She also is a business partner in Restoring Common Sense Enterprises, LLC).
When Ken contacted me about Restoring Common Sense Enterprises, I was eager to become involved, fed up with all the nonsense in Washington DC. Especially outrageous are many of the ridiculous building codes and unnecessary oversights in the mortgage lending business. It seems as though the government is trying to make it impossible for a realtor to sell a house.
Hopefully, through this website, we can put common sense back into American life. Common sense is not a partisan concept. Anyone can play.