Harold W. Crawford: The Dapper Dean of Industrial Education

Photo from a late 1960s yearbook

For decades Harold Wakeling Crawford (1903-1980) walked the halls of what today is still commonly called the "Old Crawford Engineering Building" on SC State's campus.

Just who was Harold Crawford for whom the old building is named? Keep reading and you will know!

This report is the result of weeks of research conducted as part of two of my journalism courses and valuable information provided by a guest speaker who knew the man himself.

From receiving a B.S. degree in mechanic arts in 1927 to retiring as industrial education dean in 1969, Crawford was a strong, distinguished presence at SC State.  And he was a heck of a football player too for the Bulldogs!

Today's Crawford "Engineering" Building

Crawford Communications 

For five years now, the Depression-era structure has been home to the Communications Program.  The space became available after the engineering school moved to its fine new building across campus.

School officials seem to be in no rush to remove or change the building name above the entrance: Harold W. Crawford Engineering Technology Hall.

It may be necessary at some point, but it would kind of be a shame if it means losing Harold W. Crawford to time.

"Mechanical Industries Hall" was the building's first name

The Evolution of Technology

The words and numbers engraved at the top of the building indicate when it was built and its original name: Mechanical Industries 1938.

The Mechanical Industries program would evolve into Industrial Education, which would evolve into Engineering Technology.

Technology, it would seem, was as hard to keep up with back then as it is today.

Plaque located by the building entrance

University Name Also Evolves

When the two-story red brick building was constructed from 1938-1940 SC State was officially called something else.  It was a mouthful that lawmakers in Columbia came up with when the General Assembly established the higher education facility in 1896: The Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina.

I know, doesn't exactly roll off the tongue!

Early certificate using the school's first name

For more than 50 years, this was the school's official name and it was used on building plaques as seen in the above photo and diplomas and certificates like the one to the left.

But in conversation and other informal settings people quickly shortened the lengthy name.

"Hardly anyone ever used that name," explained retired SC State history professor William Hine who spoke to my students on Feb. 26. "That was the legal name until 1954. It was on all the diplomas, on all the legal

Dr. William Hine speaking on Feb. 26

documents, on the letterheads and that sort of thing, but almost everybody called it State or State College, a few people called it State A&M. But no one called it the Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina. Some people couldn't even remember all that."
Hine says in 1954 the school's name was changed to South Carolina State College. It became South Carolina State University in the early 1990s.

Cover of Dr. Hine's SC State book

Hine knows his SC State history. He taught here for 40 years and in 2018 published "South Carolina State University: A Black Land-Grant College in Jim Crow America."

During his presentation, Hine shared many stories and photographs from the school's early days that are in his book.

While established by the General Assembly, the school historically had trouble getting sufficient operating funds from Columbia, Hine said. This, he said, led to the school having to become self-sufficient in many ways by growing and making its own food such as vegetables, cheeses, and honey, to making clothes and shoes, and repairing cars.

Much of this activity was centered in the Mechanical Industries building and before that the campus structure it was built to replace.

1939 yearbook with Crawford top center

Enter Harold Wakeling Crawford

Harold Crawford (pictured to the right top center in the1939 SC State yearbook) had the catchy nickname "Crip," according to Hine. He was a native of South Carolina, born in 1903 in Laurens County in the Upstate and would also live in Calhoun Falls (Abbeville County, SC) growing up.

He enrolled at SC State in the 1920s. Crawford was a big man, an athlete. His World War II draft card in 1943, when he was 39, lists his height and weight at 6'2", 220 pounds.

Crawford was an "outstanding football player in college" and would be a longtime assistant football coach at SC State, according to his 1980 obituary in the Charleston News and Courier (found on ancestry.com).

1940 yearbook image

An SC State student-athlete, Crawford (seen left, middle row left in the 1940 yearbook) earned a B.S. in Mechanic Arts in 1927. Five years later, in 1932, he joined SC State's faculty. This after he earned a second bachelor's degree in Automotive Engineering and General Science. This was at Kansas State University where he went on a Rosenwald Fund Scholarship.

While teaching courses in mechanical and industrial arts and education, Crawford would continue his own higher education.

He received a master's degree in administration and supervision from New York University in 1944. He eventually earned a doctorate in industrial education in 1959 at Wayne State University in Detroit.

The draft card said Crawford's mother lived in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Much material on Crawford can be found by searching his name on ancestry.com.  This includes his family tree and links to his funeral program and newspaper obituary. His father's name was Hiram Washington Lawson (1854-1924) and his mother's name was Mamie Lee "Mary" Crawford (1876-1943). He had two sisters and three half-brothers.

Another great find is (pictured) his World War II draft card from 1942.  He was 39 at the time, so perhaps too old to be called to service. But he did leave his teaching duties for two years to head SC State's Veterans Administration Guidance Center.

Yearbook from the 1960s

In 1947, Crawford returned to the faculty, becoming dean of the Industrial Education school. He would hold this position until his retirement in 1969.

The photo at left is from a yearbook in the 1960s. That's Crawford in the middle photo.

In 1950, Crawford became a candidate for the presidency of SC State, according to Hine.  He was among five men being considered by then Gov. Strom Thurmond and the school's all-white board of trustees.

"When they got to Crawford," Hine said, "they said we're not sure about him. We don't know where he stands on segregation." Hine says the board wanted a black president who would defend segregation.  They may not have felt they could control Crawford that way, so he was out of the running, suggests Hine.

After retiring in 1969, Crawford continued living in Orangeburg until his death in 1980 at age 77. He was survived by his wife Zella Louise DesVerney, their daughter Zella Marie Jackson, and two grandchildren, two nieces and a few cousins.

He was buried in Orangeburg at Belleville Memorial Garden located off Highway 601.

His successor as dean noted in the 1970 yearbook after Crawford retired how he would be missed around campus but that he "still remains in Orangeburg to greet his friends with his 'Tip Top' as usual."

The old auto shop can still be seen today!

The SC State historian William Hine began his teaching career in the late 1960s as Crawford was close to ending his.  Hine says he didn't know Crawford very well but that they were acquaintances.

"I didn't know him very well, I never went to his house, had a beer with him, and watch football together, " Hine said. "He did strike me as kind of reserved individual, kind of on the shy side."

Harold W. Crawford strikes this writer as a very distinguished, well-educated gentleman who could teach you a lot about trades, mechanics and industry.

And he could probably fix your car too if you were in a bind.

"Tip Top" to you Dr. Harold Wakeling Crawford. I am proud to work and teach in the building that you distinguished for decades.