Charles E. Crandall ’42

Charlie died April 15, 2017, after a brief illness. He had been president of our class since 2013. He grew up in Kearny, N.J., and graduated from Kearny High School.

After graduating from Princeton with a degree in chemistry, Charlie enlisted in the Navy, thereafter completing Officer Candidate School at the University of Notre Dame and engineering school at Cornell. After declining an assignment to shore patrol, he volunteered for the newly constituted rocket gunboat groups. Rocket gunboats were converted landing craft that were equipped with barrage rockets to support the underwater demolition teams that cleared the beaches of obstacles in advance of Marine landings. Because of their hazardous mission, only half of the rocket gunboats were expected to return home.

After returning from the central Pacific, Charlie decided to attend medical school so that no one ever would die on his watch for his lack of knowledge. At Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he met the woman who would be his partner for almost 70 years, Elizabeth Jones.

Charlie subsequently established a private practice in the South Orange-Maplewood, N.J., area and was on the medical staffs of the Hospital Center at Orange, East Orange General Hospital, and St. Barnabas Medical Center, serving all three institutions in multiple capacities.

Charlie was predeceased by his children Richard and David. He is survived by Elizabeth; his children Marilyn and Charles ’74; and grandchildren Abigail, Joanne, and Warren ’15.