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Seminary, being in charge of the area of Church History.
DR. ROBERT F. CRA\·JFORD
Dr. Robert F. Crawford, the seventh Dean of Biola, was born February 18, 1930, in Port Costa, near Martinez, California, where his father was employed by the Tidewater Oil Company ; In the town of two hundred residents , predominately Irish with a sprinkling of Mexican, Portuguese, and Italians, all of whom were strong Catholic, the Caucasian Protestants were definitely in the minority. Robert Crawford's first year of school was in a two-room building in Port Costa . The principle was known as the "town drunk," the elderly woman who taught the first grade was known as a doting, inefficient teacher, but tenured, so she could not be removed. The following year the Crawford fam- ily moved to Rodeo, California. Its ethnic and religious population was much as that in Port Costa. Here Robert began attending Sunday School in the rather liberal Presbyterian Church, experincing his first Bible training, even though his home had been ruled always by Christian standards his father, although at the time was not living a dedicated Christian life, had been reared in a Christian home, as Robert's grandfather was a Tenneesee Baptist preacher. After high school, Rol'8rt Crawford entered the United States Navy, ·ex- pecting to serve three years, which was lengthened to four when the Korean War began and all men on active duty in the Navy had their service auto- matically extended. During his military service he was exposed to the need for personal salvation for the first time, when he met a young man, saved at a Billy Graham Crusade, who was witnessing to his friends in the Navy . In retrospect Crawford realizes that his spiritual blindness made it dif- fic:ilt to grasp this new truth. When Dr . Crawford was discharged from the Navy, he attended Valejo
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