James Monroe Camp, 78, renowned woodworker

James Monroe Camp, 78, of Pennypack Park, an internationally renowned sculptor who once carved a wooden barstool for Frank Sinatra and a menorah for Sammy Davis Jr., died of heart failure at Frankford Hospital-Torresdale Campus on Nov. 16, the same day a sculpture of his was featured on the front of The Inquirer's Arts & Entertainment section.

Born in Sharon, Pa., Mr. Camp was an Army drill sergeant during the Korean War. He moved to Camden in the early 1950s with his wife, Francis Ann Dillard, and their son, James Jr. Mr. Camp earned a dental technician's certificate and worked for a short time with his late brother Hubert, who was a dentist.

Mr. Camp's self-taught woodworking skills soon became his livelihood. "It filled a need for self-expression that I couldn't find in people's mouths," he told a Philadelphia Bulletin reporter in the 1970s.

After his first marriage ended in divorce in 1956, he married Cornelia Marie King, and they had a daughter and son. Mr. Camp was an electrician for RCA until 1963. That year, he began to support his family by making wood furniture and other items for decorators out of a shop in Camden.

In 1967, Mr. Camp opened a studio, J. Camp Designs, at 2035 Sansom St. next to a parking garage. He persuaded the garage owner to rent space to area craftspeople. Sansom Village evolved and thrived.

"My father wore a beret to hide his receding hairline," said daughter Deborah Camp-Frye. "He came home covered in sawdust and smelling of the oils he polished the wood with."

Through connections with a Philadelphia theater owner, Mr. Camp was commissioned to make wood creations for Hollywood movie stars. With his unusually large hands, Mr. Camp made the pieces for Sinatra (who wrote "You're an absolute genius" in a thank-you note) and Davis, and a chess table and stool set for John Wayne.

Mr. Camp's hand-carved six-foot mahogany crucifix hangs in the Absalom Jones Altar Chapel in the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, in Overbrook. His noted works include a spine-back rocking chair and

Black Matriarch

, which was featured in The Inquirer with a story about the Lewis Tanner Moore "In Search of Missing Masters" exhibit at the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill.

In 1969, Mr. Camp and his wife bought a home in historic Greenbelt Knoll, a planned integrated housing development of 19 homes designed by Louis Kahn in Pennypack Park. Mr. Camp's neighbors included Pennsylvania's first black U.S. congressman, Robert N.C. Nix Sr.; the Rev. Leon Sullivan; Fire Capt. Roosevelt Barlow; and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charles Fuller.

Mr. Camp was among the African American artists who represented the U.S. in the African Diasporas exhibit in the Festival for Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977. The group included artists Nelson Stevens, Jeff Donaldson and Januwa Moja and dancer Chuck Davis.

"Jay had prearranged for flowers to be delivered to me each week he was gone to Africa," said his wife. "He was a romantic."

Mr. Camp's work was included in a Smithsonian Institution exhibition that highlighted artwork by family members. He exhibited with his late sister, painter Sylvia Harmon; his brother, photographer Don Camp; and his niece Kimberly Camp, an artist and former head of the Barnes Foundation.

Mr. Camp represented the NAACP in a 1966 fight for fair housing. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington and the Million Man March in 1995.

In addition to his wife, son, daughter and brother, Mr. Camp is survived by another son, Gary; a grandson; a brother; and a sister. His first wife died in 1991.

Friends may visit at 10 a.m. today at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, 6361 Lancaster Ave. A funeral service will follow at 11. Mr. Camp will be interred in the Absalom Jones Altar next to the crucifix he carved.

Donations may be made to the Historical Society of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, 6361 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia 19151.