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Thomas Crow, 4th MCPON, dies at 74

The fourth master chief petty officer of the Navy, Thomas Sherman Crow, died Nov. 30 at home in San Diego after an extended battle with cancer. He was 74.

“Tom has been valiantly fighting cancer for a long period,” Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SW/FMF) Joe Campa said in an e-mail to his leadership mess — many of whom joined the Navy during Crow’s tenure as MCPON.

“I feel our Navy and our nation has lost a good man and great friend.”

Crow was selected to be MCPON by then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Thomas Hayward, assuming office Sept. 28, 1979, relieving MCPON John Walker.

He served for three years before passing the job on to the next MCPON, Billy Sanders.

His term as the Navy’s top enlisted sailor focused on returning pride and professionalism to the enlisted ranks.

According to “Winds of Change,” a Navy publication that chronicles the careers of the first eight master chief petty officers of the Navy, Crow took over an enlisted workforce that was having serious morale and retention issues at a time when the drug culture was at its peak.

“I came from out in the fleet and I wanted to continue to see the Navy through that set of eyes,” Crow said in an interview for the book. “I was not going to allow the job to turn me into a bureaucrat or a politician who would bring back to the CNO what I thought he wanted to hear. That was really my only intention coming into the office.”

Crow was born in McArthur, Ohio, in 1934 and was raised by his grandmother, Cora Crow, after his mother died during child birth.

He joined the Navy a few days after graduating high school in 1953 and trained as an aviation structural mechanic (hydraulics).

His first years in the fleet saw him serving in squadrons onboard the carriers Saratoga and Coral Sea as well as at other aviation commands.

It would take Crow nearly 17 years to put on the anchors of a chief petty officer, which he finally accomplished in August 1969.

“I was probably one of the Navy’s most senior first classes,” he said in the “Winds of Change” interview. “Chief just never seemed to open up. It became a real test of will to keep going back to take the test.”

But by 1974 he had made senior chief and began to get involved in sailor issues outside of his rating as an equal opportunity counselor. In 1977, when he made master chief, he was appointed as the force master chief for the Pacific Fleet Naval Air Forces where he would serve until selected for MCPON.

Campa said the Navy’s collective chiefs’ mess mourns Crow’s loss.

“Tom Crow’s legacy is still alive through the sailors he mentored, even after he retired,” said Campa. “Sailors he trained are leading our Navy to this day, and the lessons they learned from Tom Crow continue to resonate on the deckplates in the fleet.”

Following his retirement in 1982, Crow remained active in Navy-related issues, first as the co-chair of the Secretary of the Navy’s Retired Affairs board from 1983 to 1986.

He also got involved with the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation, Navy League of the United States, Fleet Reserve Association, and a member on the board of advisers to San Diego Armed Services YMCA.

He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Carol Crow; his children, Thomas Michael Crow of Washington state, Stephen Bundy Crow of Tennessee, Teri Laslo of Virginia, John Crow of San Diego, Steve Crow of Nevada, Joel Crow of San Diego, and Candace Barnes of Mississippi; 27 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

Crow was preceded in death by two of his children Deborah Graves and Stanley McDuffee.

Information regarding funeral and memorial services will be released soon by the Navy in a NavAdmin message.

Read more about Crow and his career in “Winds of Change,” available online.