Services will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church for Robert Byron Crawford. Mr. Crawford died at home March 6 of natural causes. He was 86.
A resident of Menlo Park for 59 years, Mr. Crawford was appointed to the Menlo Park Planning Commission in 1959. He served for 17 years, several times as chairman, in a period of rapid growth and development in the city.
Mr. Crawford was born in San Francisco. He graduated from Oakland High School, where he played on the basketball team and was active in student government and the Sea Scouts.
He graduated from Stanford University in 1941 with a degree in mechanical engineering and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
After a year of graduate work at MIT, he went to work for General Electric in Schenectady, New York. He worked with the testing and design of industrial and military equipment.
It was there he met his future wife, Barbara Norris. They were married June 15, 1946, in her home town of Aberdeen, South Dakota.
In 1947 he was transferred to the San Francisco office, where he worked in the GE Industrial and Motors Division. After several more years in the San Francisco office, he transferred to the Electronic Sales Department on the Peninsula. He retired from GE in 1979 and joined Abbott Engineering in Palo Alto, and later ran a small subsidiary, the Power Source.
Mr. Crawford was a member of Menlo Park Rotary Club, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and the Elfun Society of General Electric. He was a charter member of Foothills Tennis and Swim Club, and a lifetime member of the Stanford Alumni Club. He enjoyed tennis, travel, and working around his house and garden, say family members.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara; children Dr. David Crawford of Napa, Jane Grundmeier of Auburn, Nancy Werner of Boston, and Susan Lockwood of Menlo Park; and 10 grandchildren.
Memorials in his name may be made to Pathways Hospice, 585 N. Mary Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94085; Menlo Park Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 876, Menlo Park, or the School of Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
