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          My name is Charles Anthony Campise. I was born to Charlie Campise, Mumford, Texas and Pauline Scardino, Bryan, Texas on September 26, 1941, in Houston, Texas. My parents moved between Bryan and Houston five times before I was a teenager.

 

         My best memories of life in Bryan were during the late forties through the late fifties. I was an altar boy, a mascot for school sports teams, a Boy Scout, and a collector of baseball cards which I bought from a small store near my home for four or five years.  My stories for POGGIOREALE IN AMERICA cover those years.

 

          I attended St. Joseph’s, Bryan, from fourth through eighth grade. My Confirmation was there and I was given my name after St. Anthony of Padua. I went to St. John’s Prep, San Antonio, for high school. My college education was in the seminary in Houston. I was the first ordained priest at St. Anthony Church in Bryan in 1967. My life in ministry lasted seven years while in Austin and Kyle. I was called to serve the spanish-speaking population whom I came to admire and respect through today. While in Austin and Kyle, I founded a Scout troop, served as a Police Buddy, led three protest marches down Congress Avenue, belonged to a Citizens Band Radio Club, attended a meeting with ten other clergy to hear a talk from the first President Bush, met Cesar Chavez, held funerals for six U.S. Marines who were killed in Vietnam, obtained a Masters Degree, and was a founding member of a national clergy group knows as Padres. I left ministry from Kyle in 1974 and founded a residential treatment center for boys who were unfit for the State of Texas foster care system.

 

         I moved from the center in 2014 and began driving for Lyft and Uber. My career as a driver ended on November 19, 2022, when a pickup truck hydroplaned in front of my car and put me into a near-death situation. I now live in retirement in San Marcos, Texas with my wife, Rosemary.

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