Harry Huston Crawford
Harry Huston Crawford
Born	(1886-08-23)August 23, 1886 West Union, Ohio
Died	November 5, 1938(1938-11-05) (aged 52) San Francisco, California
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Engineer, Teacher, Aviator

Harry Huston Crawford (1886-1938) was an engineer, teacher, and aviator. As an engineer he contributed to the construction of various railroads in Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Alaska. He was assistant resident engineer on the building of the Victoria, B.C., water supply system in 1913-1915. As aviator and teacher, he founded the Aviation Program at Glendale College in 1929.

Life

Harry Huston Crawford was born in West Union, Ohio, on 23 August 1886. His parents were George Crawford, owner of a dry goods store, and Edith Belle Huston Crawford, a teacher. His father died when he was only a few months old, and he grew up with his maternal grandparents in Sullivan, Missouri. He graduated in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri in 1907 and later obtained degrees in education from the Oregon Agricultural College in 1922 and the University of Southern California in 1932. At the time of his death in November, 1938, he was working on a graduate degree in botany at the University of Southern California.

Engineering Career

After graduating from the University of Missouri ^[1], Crawford began his career as an electrical engineer with Westinghouse in Pittsburgh and then with the Seattle-Tacoma Power Company. In 1908 he took a job with the Northern Pacific Railway which was then electrifying its line over the Cascade Mountains. This experience convinced him to make his career in civil engineering and stay with railroads. He moved on to the Copper River and Northwestern Railway in Alaska, then to the Union Pacific’s Oregon Short Line. In 1913 he was in Seattle on his way back to Alaska when he was offered a position on the engineering team charged with building a new water supply system for the city of Victoria, British Columbia. His railway experience was needed because the system involved a 27.5 mile pipeline from Sooke Lake to a holding reservoir at Humpback near Victoria. A grade had to be surveyed over very rough terrain and a track laid to install the 4 ft. diameter concrete pipe. On the completion of the project in 1915, Crawford was assistant resident engineer for the project ^[2]. He then returned to work for the Union Pacific until the U.S. entered World War I in 1917 when he enlisted in the Air Service.

Military Service

Crawford served in the rank of First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Service as a balloon pilot. He was stationed at Fort Omaha, Nebraska, and at Fort Wise, San Antonio, Texas, until the fall of 1918 when his company was sent to France. He saw no action, but was severely wounded in an accidental explosion, following which he spent almost a year in rehabilitation at Fort Henry, Maryland.

Teaching Career

Unable to continue the life of an engineer, he started teaching in 1920 in Oregon and took a B.S. degree in vocational education at the Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in 1922. He later taught in Dunsmuir and Sacramento, California.

Aviation

Crawford’s interest in aviation never waned. Soon after his discharge from the Army Air Service he started flying with the then well-known flying ace Tex Rankin. He became a part-time teacher and student at the Rankin School of Flying in Portland, Oregon. Rankin awarded him a Certificate of Proficiency from the school in 1929.

Aviation Program, Glendale College

In 1929, Glendale College was being encouraged by the U.S. Government to start an aviation program that would train students in the building and maintenance of aircraft. Crawford was hired to set up the program. Initially, the courses centered on the rebuilding of a Martin bombing monoplane that had been donated by the U.S. Navy. Several local aircraft companies donated various airplane parts and engines to serve as a basis of the practical side of the course. The theory of flight and commercial regulations were also covered. The program proved very popular and was expanded to 3 courses by 1931 ^[3]. Crawford received an M.S. degree in education from the University of Southern California in 1932 with a thesis on the teaching of aviation in public secondary schools ^[4].

Owing to difficulties stemming from the economic depression, the Board of Education at Glendale decided to terminate the program in 1934. Crawford was then dismissed for financial reasons along with many other members of the teaching staff. Crawford maintained that he had been appointed as a permanent teacher and took the Board to court. The court ultimately found in his favor and he was reinstated in 1937 ^{[5] [6]}. As the aviation program no longer existed, he taught mathematics and physics.

Tragically, in the fall of 1938, just as the federal government was preparing to subsidize the resumption of the aviation program, Crawford was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was sent to the Veterans Administration Hospital at Fort Miley in San Francisco, where he died on 5 November 1938. The aviation program at Glendale College was resumed in 1939 under the direction of Thomas S. Ryan ^[7].

Crawford had completed the requirements for an M.S. degree in botany from the University of Southern California. The thesis he had written was read at a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1940 ^[8]. An abstract of the paper also appeared the same year ^[9]. A petition by his supervisor, Howard DeForest, to grant the degree posthumously was denied by the president of the university in 1939.

Notes

Reference

• Tolman, C. W. (2012). Cousin Harry: Glimpses into the life of Harry Huston Crawford, engineer, teacher, aviator. Victoria, B.C.: Proprius Publishers. ISBN  978-0-9880429-0-2