John B. Crowell Jr. ’52
John B. Crowell Jr. ’52 passed away on April 22. He was born on March 18, 1930, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Raised in Elizabeth, John attended Thomas Jefferson High School, graduating in 1948 as student body president. He attended Dartmouth on a Navy ROTC scholarship and upon graduating, served two years as a lieutenant, j.g., aboard the ammunition ship USS Mount Katmai during the Korean conflict. While docked in San Francisco in February 1953 he met Rebecca Margaret “Peggy” McCue. They were married in San Jose, California, on February 13, 1954. John enrolled in Harvard Law School that fall and graduated three years later. John worked as a federal law clerk in Newark, New Jersey, for two years before moving to Oregon in 1959. He devoted the first part of his legal career to the timber industry, working for Georgia-Pacific and then as general counsel for Louisiana-Pacific Corp. He was instrumental in crafting and passage of the 1976 National Forest Management Act. He was nominated in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan to serve as an assistant secretary of agriculture. After a four-year term he and Peggy returned home to Lake Oswego, Oregon, in 1985. John joined the law firm Lane, Powell and practiced law into his 70s until gradually retiring. He was predeceased by Peggy in 2016. He is survived by children John ’77 (and wife Sharon) and Patrick ’79 (and wife Susan), and Ann Montoya (and husband Rick); five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
