Herbert Crowson

Contributed by Bert Crowson, Austin, Texas

Herbert Crowson, was the son of Walter and Ollie Crowson of Mulat, Florida. He graduated from highschool in Valdosta, Georgia in the spring of 1928 and at 17 years of age (he would be eighteen the following October) took the teachers examination, and signed a contract with the Santa Rosa County Board of Education on July 25, 1928 to teach and serve as principal for the school at Juniper, Florida for the 1928-1929 school year. I believe Edith Raley Cooper also taught with Herbert that year and may be the lady on the right in the picture dated 1928. My records show that J.C. Word was the Santa Rosa County Superintendent.

During the 1929-1930 school year Herbert did not teach but worked, with his brother Athel (Athelston) Crowson, for the Willson Magazine Camera Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. They took pictures for schools in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

The next year Herbert returned to teaching at the school in Chumuckla, Florida for the 1930-1931 school year. It was here he met & married another teacher, Ruby Faye Tatum.

The following year he resumed teaching. Other principal/teaching assignments included:

• 1933-1934 Taught at Springhill, Florida, northeast of Milton.

• 1935-1936 Taught at Wallace.

• 1937-1941 Taught and served as principal at Harold.
  

Herbert Crowson, born in 1910. He graduated from the University of Florida and served in both teaching and administrative positions with public schools in northwest Florida. During WWII he taught code and communications for the Navy in Pensacola. He left teaching in 1951 and began work in the missile and space industry in Florida and Alabama, where he worked until his retirement. He was involved in many programs for the Army at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, including serving as project engineer on the Nike Ballistic Missile Program.He and Ruby had four children: Herbert Jr. (Bert), Marian, Anita, and Walter Norman.

His father, Walter Robert Crowson served as postmaster in Mulat for many years. Their children included: Athel, Glenna (Foreman), Margaret (Dobson), Herbert, Lillian (Hinley), Walter Jr., Isabella (Stewart), and Frances (Thurman). Frances is the only surviving sibling. Helen Dobson Chapman, wife of Norman (former chief of police in Pensacola) is the daughter of Margaret Crowson Dobson. Another daughter of Margaret Crowson Dobson is Donna Dobson who still lives in Jay, Fla.