BATON ROUGE -- Former WBRZ and CNN reporter John Camp is being honored by the O'Brien House recovery center by naming a treatment meeting room in his honor.

For more than half a century, the O'Brien House has been helping alcoholics and addicts in the Baton Rouge area recover. WBRZ got the chance to talk to the O'Brien executive director, Dr. Emily George Tilley, about how integral Camp was to making that happen.

"We offer 90-day residential services for clients with addiction, men and women. We also have an adult substance abuse education program with intensive outpatient prevention services." Tilley said.

Camp struggled with alcoholism early in his career. After he got help, he set his sights on helping others in Baton Rouge overcome addiction.
In 1971, six months after becoming sober, he helped found the O'Brien House.

"He started O'Brien House after he went to help some gentlemen in the AA Community to take them to a meeting and he found that they were in some unsanitary and unsafe living conditions in a facility," Tilley said
For 53 years, Camp was sober and would come back to O'Brien to tell his story to people at the center, hear theirs and always offer encouragement.

"I've been here 12 years and probably for 10 of the 12 years that I have been working here, Mr. John had been coming back, speaking to the clients monthly. Pouring into them," Tilley said.

Camp passed away in January at the age of 88. His family said that instead of sending flowers for his funeral, they should donate to the John Camp Great Room renovation project at O'Brien.

Now, on Monday the 19th, the center will celebrate 53 years and name the center's great room in Camp's honor. It's a space where he inspired many.
"This room is where all of our meetings are, where our group meetings with the clients are held. We have our annual Christmas party in this room. We do all of our major functions in here," Tilley said.