David M. Crawford

David M. Crawford, of Southport, CT, born in Philadelphia on January 5, 1916, passed away peacefully on August 28th surrounded by family and friends. He is survived by his beloved wife of 69 years, Elizabeth, four children, Thomas M. Crawford, David, M. Crawford, Jr., Barbara Crawford Snyder and Elizabeth Spencer, six grandchildren and two great grand children. He graduated from Cornell University in 1938. He graduated from Yale law School where he was Director of The Moot Court. Upon graduation, he entered the US Naval Reserve and assumed command of naval escort vessels in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. He then went on to be commander of the Navy tanker, USS Clifton, in the Pacific serving until the occupation of Japan. Following the war, he married his wartime sweetheart from Brisbane, Australia, Elizabeth MacDonald. He practiced law with Lord, Day and Lord in New York and taught admiralty law at Yale Law School. In 1948, he became member of the legal staff of The Economic Cooperation Administration (The Marshall Plan) serving in Washington, Athens and Paris. Upon returning to the United States, he joined Mobil Oil Corporation's legal staff and was responsible for organizing their Government Relations department. In the early 60's he served briefly as General Counsel to Abbot Laboratories in North Chicago before joining Texas Gulf Inc. in New York as Corporate Secretary and Manager of Investor Relations until his retirement in 1984.Taking on a new career, in 1985 he became Adjunct Professor at Bridgeport University's School of Law and director of their LLM program on taxation. He continued on as professor when the law school moved to Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT and received an honorary doctor of law from the school in 2001. A private service to celebrate David's life will be held at a later date to be announced. In lieu of flowers the family has requested any memorial donations be made to Ability Beyond Organization serving people with special needs. www.abilitybeyond.org. For information or to sign an online guest register please visit www.SpearMillerFuneralHome.com