THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602130098
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
WHEN GEORGE CRAWLEY got a job with the Norfolk Planning Council in 1963, he stood at the doorway with executive director George Rice greeting each community leader who entered by name.
Their first name.
That was a big deal in those days, for a black man to greet an important white man or woman by anything other than ``Mr.'' ``Mrs.,'' or ``Sir'' or ``Ma'am.'' Rice wanted Crawley, a new executive, to get off on an equal footing with the community leaders who ran the Planning Council.
So on that first morning, Rice had drilled Crawley carefully.
When Pretlow Darden, the one-time mayor, or Frank Batten Sr., owner of the newspaper, or Henry Clay Hofheimer, noted businessman and philanthropist, came through the door, Rice would greet each by their first name.
``Good morning, Pretlow,'' Rice would say.
Then, immediately afterward, Rice would introduce Crawley, who would mimic Rice and say ``Good morning, Pretlow.''
If these important community leaders accepted an African-American addressing them the way a white man did, then Crawley had a chance of being effective in his job.
Crawley did use their first names. The leaders did not take offense. And Crawley was on his way to a long career in public service that would lead to the position of assistant city manager.
``All of that experience was invaluable to me,'' Crawley said of his initial years with the Planning Council. ``It gave me an appreciation for the community and what it ought to be. It helped me understand how you get people to work together and how to truly listen to them.''
Crawley retires this month after 22 years with the city and more than a decade of work with city-oriented non-profit groups. His age, 61, and a brush with mortality a year ago during surgery led him to the decision. He wants to enjoy his wife and family, and not get caught up in the ``rat race'' of a high-pressure city job.
Upon retirement, he will leave behind him assistant city managers Shurl R. Montgomery, Sterling B. Cheatham and deputy city manager Darlene L. Burcham.
Crawley is credited during his tenure of starting the much-touted community policing program and a variety of other efforts that help neighborhoods and citizens improve by working in partnership with government.
As one of the first African-Americans to climb the ranks of city government, Crawley's tenure stretches from when blacks drank at separate water fountains to the times when they serve on local city councils and in top ranks of city administrations.
It's a lot to see in one career, and Crawley remembers those days well.
``I vividly recall signs over water fountains, and how there were certain places you could live and could not live,'' Crawley said.
Crawley grew up in Newport News. After serving in the Army and attending Virginia State University, he worked with the housing authority in that city. He supervised two public housing projects there.
When he came to Norfolk to join the Planning Council, he said he was surprised at the stronger tradition of community service. Leading citizens, Crawley said, were expected to work to make the city a better place, something that was less true in the shipyard town he had left behind.
Among the black middle class at the time in Norfolk, there was also a definite pecking order in society and a sense of who did and did not make the grade, he said.
``I remember you would be asked three questions when you met somebody new,'' Crawley said in his 11th floor office overlooking the Elizabeth River and the Berkley shipyards.
``Where did you live, what family were you from and what church did you go to. If you could answer those three questions correctly, you were all right.''
Crawley could. He lived in the Green Hill Farms section, a new middle-class black neighborhood, attended church, and his wife, Cynthia Hewitt, was of a respected Norfolk family.
Even though the days of forced segregation are over, Crawley sees lower-income blacks and the poor in general being segregated by an economy that no longer supplies jobs to those without high levels of skill.
``I see an economic segregation'' that is replacing forced segregation, Crawley said.
The neighborhood jobs that anyone willing to work hard could move into - at the local mattress factory or a corner store - no longer exist.
At the Planning Council, Crawley worked for two years leading the East Ghent Project, which was an effort to improve and clean up the then deteriorating neighborhood at Princess Anne and Colonial Avenue.
The area was razed in 1970 to make way for what is now Ghent Square.
But the motto under Crawley, he recalled, was ``Human renewal, not urban renewal.''
When the decision was announced at the end of the decade to raze the neighborhood and remove several thousand families, Crawley said he was surprised and opposed. If such plans had been in the works during his time at the Planning Council, he never knew about them, he said.
But Norfolk had a different government in those days, less open than it is now, Crawley said.
After two years at the Planning Council, Crawley moved on and for a decade led STOP, a private organization that led a variety of job training and social upkeep programs for poor or needy residents.
He joined the city government in 1975 to serve as director of human services. He became assistant city manager in 1983. He would supervise the core government services that most people think of first when they think of local government: police, fire, libraries, social services and public health. He was the council's liaison with the courts and school system.
In the 1980s and '90s, he was the architect of the city's community policing program, or PACE, which has won the city national attention and helped drop the city's crime rate, city officials say.
As PACE's leader, Crawley has visited the White House and consulted with top justice officials. Crawley said he probably would continue with these contacts, perhaps in some sort of part-time consulting work.
``I'm not looking for a full-time job, but I'm going to stay busy,'' Crawley said. ``I won't be fishing or playing golf.''
Crawley said he always has been impressed by the willingness of citizens to work to improve their communities, through programs like community policing and neighborhood social service centers.
City Manager James B. Oliver said he would have to reconfigure the duties of the deputy and three assistant city managers because Crawley's job was built around his special set of strengths.
``George has an amazingly rich career in public service,'' Oliver said. ``To many, he symbolizes something decent about city government.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
DISTINGUISHED CAREER
Staff photo by BETH BERGMAN
Retiring assistant city manager George Crawley embraces Jane Henson
after receiving a plaque at a ceremony at the Bureau of Emergency
Services.
Staff photo by BETH BERGMAN
Retiring assistant city manager George Crawley ponders city issues
in a meeting on City Hall's 11th floor.
Staff photo by BETH BERGMAN
George Crawley and Barbara Elliott, a telecommunications employee,
exhange an emotional goodbye hug.
Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Now that he's retiring as an assistant city manager, George Crawley
will be able to spend more time with his wife, Cynthia, and the rest
of his family.
Photo by BETH BERGMAN
George Crawley talks with the Rev. David Lassalle, right, during an
oath of office ceremony.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB