Cal was born April 29, 1929, in Little Rock, Ark., the son of Virginia Campbell and C.R. Ledbetter. He went to Little Rock High School and majored in SPIA at Princeton. Cal belonged to the Arkansas Club, Cloister Inn, and Whig-Clio while on campus. He roomed with John Bradley, Ellery Gay, and Bill Robinson.
In 1953, he and Mary Brown (“Brownie”) Williams were married. Cal received a law degree from the University of Arkansas Law School in 1954 and a Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University in 1960. He served two years in the Army’s JAG Corps.
He joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and taught political science there from 1960 to 1997, serving as department chair and dean of the college of liberal arts. He retired as professor emeritus of political science. He served five successive terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives and ran for Congress in 1976 but was defeated; he was a delegate to the Democratic conventions in 1968 and 1984.
Cal died in Little Rock Aug. 10, 2013, and is survived by his son, Grainger; daughter Snow Moen; and five grandchildren. Brownie and their son Jeffrey predeceased him.