The Norman Crawford papers consist of the personal papers and administrative records that belonged to Norman Crawford, a majority of which were created during his time as President of Salisbury State College (now Salisbury University), 1970-1980. Although many of Crawford’s personal papers date prior to his arrival at Salisbury in 1970, there are materials, some of which relate to his continuing relationship with Salisbury, that date after 1980.

“Ocean Pines-Norman Crane Crawford Jr., 85, of Ocean Pines, died peacefully at Atlantic General Hospital, Thursday, May 12, 2016, surrounded by his loving family.

Born October 30, 1930 in Newark, NJ, he was the son of the late Norman Crane Crawford Sr. and Anna Wares Crawford. He was preceded in death by a sister, Irene Page, and her husband, William. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Garnette Bell Crawford, two daughters, Sally Crawford of West Ocean City, and Ellen Price (Chris) of Charlotte, NC; grandson, Chris and two cats.

A life-long educator, he gained a sense of values through scouting, ultimately achieving Eagle Scout, and a love of sports through his local YMCA. He earned his Bachelor of Science in education and Master of Education from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in higher education administration.

He served in the U.S. Navy for four years as a lieutenant during the Korean Conflict, and taught at the Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, where he met Garnette.

After military service, his first job was at Rutgers University, followed by positions with the National Merit Scholarship Corp. in Evanston, IL; the Division of Higher Education of the U.S. Office of Health, Education and Welfare; and the University of Delaware. At the age of 39, he became the fifth president of Salisbury University serving from 1970-80.

After leaving Salisbury, he continued his career in executive positions in higher education, at Drury College, MO (president); the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in Washington, D.C.; University of Maine, Farmington (acting president); and Thomas Edison State University (vice president).

Upon retirement, he and Garnette returned to the Eastern Shore where they have been active members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Berlin.”

[SOURCE] The Daily Times, May 18-20, 2016. Available at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/delmarvanow/obituary.aspx?pid=180018173#sthash.OQhqhMYy.dpuf

The Norman Crawford papers consist of the personal papers and administrative records that belonged to Norman Crawford, a majority of which were created during his time as President of Salisbury State College (now Salisbury University), 1970-1980. Although many of Crawford’s personal papers date prior to his arrival at Salisbury in 1970, there are materials, some of which relate to his continuing relationship with Salisbury, that date after 1980.

This collection contains primarily correspondence, both to and from Crawford, which is not limited to the Correspondence series (Series 2). Some letters—especially those pertaining to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the University of Delaware—are filed in the Biographical series (Series 1). Moreover, the Biographical series (Series 1) contains Crawford’s dissertation from Northwestern University, while the rest of his published writing is filed in Writings by Crawford (Subseries 5.1).

The Biographical series (Series 1) contains materials that relate to both Crawford’s personal life and his activities before and after his term as President of Salisbury State College. These include letters and cards from his daughters, personal resumes, a reproduction of his certificate of birth, naval records and correspondence regarding his service, speech text from addresses before 1970 and after 1980, materials from the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, and materials relating to his positions at the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, United States Office of Education, University of Delaware, and Drury College. Photographs of Crawford can be found in the Photograph Files under Crawford, Norman.

The Correspondence series (Series 2) is organized in two ways (from the original order): chronological and subject. However, there seems to be crossover between the two arrangements, meaning that both should be checked when researching Crawford’s letters.

Salisbury State College and Salisbury University materials (Series 3) range from administrative records to collected programs and brochures. This series also contains Crawford’s speeches and addresses given while President. While most of the documents that document Crawford’s resignation from Salisbury State College are filed in the Correspondence series, there is a folder in Series 3 containing documents about legal matters, records of visitors after the resignation announcement, reinstatement rally posters, and other miscellaneous items. All newspapers and newspaper clippings relating to this time period are filed in Series 7.

Awards and Honors (Series 4) contains plaques, certificates, and other items honoring Crawford and his many achievements. These items are arranged chronologically.

Although some materials that relate to Crawford’s educational and professional activities are filed in Series 1, this series consists of the majority of those papers and publications. The first subseries (5.1) contains published writings by Crawford. A significant item from this subseries relating to Salisbury University is his 1976 assessment “The Salisbury Experience” and his article revisiting the assessment. The second subseries (5.2) contains collected proceedings and brochures from the 1983 American Council on Education Colloquium for Presidents. The third subseries (5.3) contains collected publications that were collected by Crawford, but do not cover or come from his personal or professional activities.

Multimedia (Series 6) consists of one VHS tape recording of the 1998 Salisbury Sports Hall of Fame induction of Crawford, one DVD-R reformatted recording of the 25th anniversary of WSSC/WSUR/WXSU in 1998, and one CD-ROM containing oral history interviews conducted by Dr. Ray Thompson in 2015. This series also includes a Friends of Norman Crawfrod scrapbook and loose photographs ranging from 1943 to 2007. Also included is a spruce sapling that was given at the September 29, 2016 Celebration of Life intended for attendees to plant in Crawford’s memory. Newspaper issues and newspaper clippings (Series 7) are mostly unsorted. One set of the Flyer is arranged from 1973 to 1982; all other newspaper issues, both Flyer and Advertiser, are not arranged.

Newspaper clippings from various newspapers and covering many different topics are largely unsorted, except for some folders arranged by previous archivists.

The Norman Crawford papers are almost entirely paper materials, some of which have been subjected to high acidity from their proximity to newspaper clippings. Multimedia has not been reformatted, except for the oral history interviews (backed up on Archives hard drive). There are photographs throughout the collection, but the majority of the photographs of Crawford are located in the Photograph Files. The collection also contains some items, such as plaques in Series 4 and a vinyl record that has been framed as an honor for Crawford for the 40th anniversary of WSSC/WXSU in 2013.

This collection has been arranged into seven series (see Scope and Content Note for arrangement of materials within series):

Series 1: Biographical, 1930-1983

Series 2: Correspondence, 1970-1998

Series 3: Salisbury State College/Salisbury University, 1970-2011

Series 4: Awards and Honors, 1960-2013

Series 5: Educational and Professional Development, 1961-1988

• Subseries: 5.1. Writings by Crawford, 1961-1985
• Subseries: 5.2. Conferences, 1983
• Subseries: 5.3. Miscellaneous Publications, 1971-1988

Series 6: Multimedia, 1998-2015

Series 7: Newspapers and clippings, undated