John (Jack) William Crawford, Jr., a Navy captain who served on the staff of Admiral Hyman Rickover prior to stints with the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, has died, the board announced in a press release last week.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was created by Congress in 1988 and Crawford served as a founding member from 1989-to-1996. The DNFSB described Crawford in a March 31 press release as “pivotal in the establishment of the Board and instilling in the agency a culture of excellence and dedication to the safety of the defense nuclear complex that has endured for decades.”
Crawford died Feb. 28. Neither the DNFSB announcement or a March 20 obituary in the Washington Post listed his age. Some DNFSB officials believe he was 102, but this could not be confirmed, a board spokesperson said in a Thursday email.
Crawford was a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1942. “He left the academy 12 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served 22 years on active duty in the Navy,” according to the DNFSB release. “Captain Crawford fought in the Battle of Midway aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, surviving its sinking in the aftermath of the battle.”
Following World War II, Crawford joined Rickover’s staff and eventually served as deputy director of nuclear reactors, according to DNFSB. After his Navy career, Crawford in 1965 joined the Atomic Energy Commission, a Department of Energy predecessor, and held senior positions including principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy. Crawford would also lead a post-Three Mile Island assessment of the safety of DOE nuclear reactors, resulting in the widely publicized “Crawford Report,” the DNFSB said in the release.
“Even after retiring from the Board, Captain Crawford continued to actively correspond with the Board Members, DOE, and others in positions of responsibility to urge vigilance in oversight and assurance of the safety of the defense nuclear complex,” the DNFSB said.
