Thomas Elwyn Crawford

Thomas Elwyn Crawford, 79, of Spring Hill, Fla., passed away on Saturday, Nov. 7, following a long illness. Tom was born in Columbus, Ohio, to devoted Buckeyes fans Elwyn J. and Anna Bernyce (Hathaway) Crawford. A three-sport star at Toledo’s DeVilbiss High School (Class of 1954), he earned a football scholarship to the Ohio State University, where he lettered at quarterback for the team that won the 1957 Rose Bowl and a national championship. Tom remained an active member of the Varsity “O” Football Club and Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and was a lifelong Buckeyes season-ticket holder. An avid skier and golfer, he enjoyed hitting the slopes from Lake Tahoe to Telluride -- and hitting the links at San Francisco's Olympic Club, where he was once a member. Tom raised racing pigeons throughout his life and was active in the Gulfcoast Homing Pigeon Club after moving to Florida in 2005. His passions included jazz and seeking adventure. He ran with the bulls in Pamplona and was a tourist on the last Western bus allowed into East Berlin before the Berlin Wall went up. Tom was retired from the Paslode Company and Illinois Tool Works, where he served as a national sales manager. During his 40 years with the company, his work took Tom and his family from the Bay Area to Barrington, Ill., to Tulsa, Okla. He was preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his sister, Sue Gross, and brother-in-law Jim Gross; wife Kathleen Moore Crawford; daughters Aimee Crawford and Bridget Crawford; sons-in-law Robert Peterson and Anthony Rella; grandchildren Nicholas Peterson, Madeline Peterson and Clark Rella; nephew Todd Palechek; and nieces Julie DuPont and Jodi Palecheck-Daves. A memorial service will be held in Columbus at Sunset Cemetery on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 1 p.m. Friends and family are invited to visit pinecrestfuneralchapel.com to offer condolences. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to either the Ohio State Fund for Scholarships or the New Orleans Jazz Foundation.