Upon his father's death in 1934, L. H. Campbell at the age of forty-two became the youngest college president in North Carolina. During his long, 33-year tenure as president, he guided the college through many challenges and economic struggles, especially the Depression and World War II. At his 1935 inauguration as the second president of Campbell, he said, "The events of this hour constitute only a link between a past set with marvelous achievement and a future calling for our wholehearted endeavor." He concluded his address stating, "This is no coronation day. Rather, it witnesses the solemn dedication and surrender of all it is in us to a holy cause."