Donald Ray Crawford

Donald Ray Crawford, 73, of Mossyrock, Wash. passed away at his home on the morning of July 25th 2019. He was born July 12th 1946 to Donald Ray and Mary Elizabeth Crawford in Muskegon, MI. They resided in Elma, Olympia, and eventually moved to Tacoma. He was the second oldest of a large family of 9 brothers and sisters including a step sister and brother. He is preceded in death by his parents, step father John James I, baby sister Rose Mary Taylor, sister Linda O’Malley, step brother Mike James, brother James (Bimmer) Crawford, and wife Julie White. He was survived by his sister Carol (Ernie) Sproul, brothers Mikey Taylor, John James II, sister-in-law Diana Crawford, step sister Patsy, step sons Kurt Johnson, Brian Johnson, and daughters Amy (Karel) Peltram and Wendy Crawford, along with grandsons Keith, Christopher, Zachary, Anthony, Karel (Kaja), Carson, and granddaughters Bailey and Abigail.

Don was drafted into the Vietnam War out of High School serving 2 tours 1966-67 and 1969-70. He was recognized as a Jungle Expert and awarded many medals including, Jungle Expert, Good Conduct Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Nat’l Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, three overseas bars, was an expert on the M-14, M-16, and M-60. He was honorably discharged after his service on December 10th 1971. He went on to become a Welder by trade and belonged to the Boilermakers Union Local 568 in Tacoma, where he worked in the shipyards and taught welding classes at the Union Hall. After retiring from the Boilermakers Union he began fishing every chance he could with his wife Julie, earning over 95 world and state records.

He put his heart and soul into everything he did and will be greatly missed. His funeral service will be held at the Tahoma National Cemetery on August 15th 2019 at 12:30PM for anyone who would like to attend.