William A. Crawford

Crawford was born on January 14, 1915;[2] the son of John Raymond Crawford, a professor of Greek and Latin at Lafayette College, and Pauline Avery.[3]

Educated abroad in France, he studied at Haverford College, where he went abroad in Spain during the Spanish Civil War,[4] graduating in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts. He later studied at the Russian Institute (now the Harriman Institute) at Columbia University.[1]

After graduation, Crawford worked at a department store before joining the diplomatic corps.

Crawford joined the United States Foreign Service in 1941, serving in Moscow, Paris, Havana, and Prague.[5] Though subject to a loyalty investigation under Executive Order 9835 in 1951,[6] he passed,[6] continuing his work in the Foreign Service. and was chosen to be minister in October 1961.[7]

In February 1962, he presented his credentials as minister, serving until the post was upgraded to Ambassador in 1964;[8] during this time, he helped spur Romania-United States relations in the fields of trade and cultural exchange.[9] He and his wife, Barbara, also founded the American International School of Bucharest in 1962.[5]

Crawford left his post in October 1965.

After Romania, Crawford was an assistant to Lyman Lemnitzer, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, from 1965 to 1967.[1] He retired from the Foreign Service in 1970.[5]

He then taught at the Landon School, worked at a marketing company,[5] finished his memoirs, and contributed to a biography on his mother.[10]

Crawford was married twice: first to Barbara Gardner, from October 19, 1940,[11] till her death in September 1979;[12] and then to Gudrun Hadell.[1]

From his first marriage, he had five children: three sons and two daughters.[10]

Crawford died at his home on December 14, 2001, a month before his 87th birthday, survived by his children and his second wife.[5]

• William Avery Crawford at the Office of the Historian
• William Avery Crawford in the Biographic Register of the Department of State (1959), pp. 170-1