Charles Baxter Crowder
Charles Baxter Crowder passed away peacefully in his house on September 1st at the age of 69. He was born in St. Louis Missouri on September 19th, 1954. He attended Pomona College, where he met his wife Linda, and they were married in July 21st 1979.
Charles was a well-respected lawyer, who put a lot of dedication and pride into his work. His main motivation was always his family, daughters Jessica and Allison, and his deeply loved grandchildren. He and Linda spent lots of dedication and time founding St. Stephen’s Anglican Church together. He had a deep sense of faith which guided him in all aspects of his life.
Charles and Linda loved to travel, especially to Spain.
Services will be held on October 12, 2024 at All Saints Anglican Church, 346 Termino Ave. Long Beach, CA 90814 at 10:00am. Please join us in celebrating Charles’ life.
In lieu of flowers, we kindly ask that donations be addressed to
Crowder Memorial Fund at: St. Stephen’s Anglican Church - 155 El Camino Real, Tustin CA 92780.
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Not my first memory of my brother Charles but nonetheless an early one: Doug and Peter Rexford, our very close (literally and REALLY) next door neighbors and friends in St. Louis, MO devised an ingenious way to communicate late at night “beneath the radar” so no one would discover our banter. Two Campbell soup cans enjoined with a clothesline spanned Doug’s open upstairs bedroom window with ours. Voila! Instant verbal smoke signals aplenty! (not an original idea I know but one which very well suited our needs!) –James
I miss my dad everyday. There are so many good memories of him I can’t write them all. Every memory I have of him I will cherish, from running errands together singing American Pie and Tiny Dancer to watching him sing with an amazing Scottish accent to Alex Beatons best hits or even Tim Finnegans Wake. He was always so animated singing any music he loved to listen to. I will always have the memories of going on our trips abroad and getting so embarrassed watching him try and speak either in the actual language of the country we were in, or just trying to pronounce the words when ordering food or talking in general wherever we were. I will always get to remember my dad sitting against my old pink back tester reading to Camden and Kloee stories to bed with them on the floor each side of him head on each of his shoulders taking in what he would be reading. He was the proudest father and Papa any of us had and I miss him so much. Love love love you Daddio and miss you terribly.
So Jessica, I see you ended with a phrase Charles, James, and I would use with our Dad to be playfull – “Hello Daddio.” Nice to see it has spread to the next generation.
I’ll try to remember what I wrote that disappeared into the ether when the site wasn’t working …
I will miss my brother terribly. Our long conversations about anything, and reminiscing about childhood memories. Everyone remembered this one a bit differently …
–While living for a year in Harlan with out grandparents, we got particularly adventurous one day and decided to descend the steep hill to the river, then cut over to explore a neighbor’s corn field. Quite the rush to feel so dwarfed by tall corn. The adrenaline kicked up a notch though when the farmer loomed over the edge of the hill with a pitch fork or shot gun (the weapon got more menacing over the years) and shouted down, “Get out of my corn.” Hearts in our throats! It was Charles’ idea to do the unexpected, and dart to the other side of the path, away from the corn, hide, and wait for the farmer to turn toward his field in pursuit. At which point, we scrambled up the hillside and out the yard to the sidewalk above. Whew – that was certainly a close call. We were all saved by Charles that day.
Brother James here piping in briefly with an edit to my first posting. (Re: communicating too late at night with Doug and Peter Rexford, our next door neighbors via 2 soup cans) After the soup cans were flung from our upstairs window to the Rexfords’, and we shouted, “Houston, we have lift off!”, I wrote, “Voila!”, which Charles ALWAYS pronounced, “voy-LAH,” which amused our Dad since he was never much fond of the French for some reason….
{James again} Edit to the edit….Charles would pronounce it “VOY-lah,” much to the delight of our Dad!