Maplewood lost one of its oldest and more prominent residents last April with the passing of Charles Eben Crandall, M.D.
For decades, Crandall lived with his wife Elizabeth, also a doctor, at the corner of Prospect and Plymouth. He even ran his practice from the house back in the day when the homes on Prospect where lined with doctors and other professionals offering home/office service.
Charlie Crandall was my neighbor but I didn’t meet him until I was covering the annual Maplewood Veterans Day celebration in 2009 where Crandall spoke of his experience fighting in the Pacific in World War II — particularly the battle at Iwo Jima — and delivered a strong anti-war message. He made quite an impression.
“War is to be avoided at all costs, unless everything else has failed,” said Crandall that day. He spoke of how real battle differed from Hollywood versions of the time: “You get blown to pieces or burned terribly or mangled and you die slowly.” It was a revelation that came as a shock to many of his fellow Navy sailors and officers. During the war, Crandall said he would pray that, if he were to die, “I would be killed instantly.” He also told the story of a gunner’s mate who was literally blown in half. “‘Salty (Crandall’s nickname),’ he said, ‘you think I’m gonna make it? I said, ‘Sure, Morrissey.’ I gave him a cigarette, he took one puff, went into convulsions and died.”
Read the full report on Patch here.
Unfortunately, I didn’t stay in close touch with Dr. Crandall — kids, work and all that got in the way. Driving past his house almost daily, I’d wonder how he was doing. Changes to the property lately made me think something had shifted. Indeed, it had. At the Township Reorganization meeting on January 1, I heard Dr. Crandall’s name called in the memorial of prominent citizens and employees who had been lost in 2017.
Searching online, I came across Crandall’s obituary in the Shelter Island Reporter. What a life!
Here’s the full report:
Charles Eben Crandall, M.D., of Maplewood, New Jersey, and Shelter Island died on April 15, 2017, after a brief illness.
Mr. Crandall was born March 8, 1921, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Charles Eben Crandall and Edith Harriet Squire. He grew up in Kearny, New Jersey, and graduated from Kearny High School and Princeton University with a degree in chemistry.
He enlisted in the Navy, and went to officer candidate school and volunteered for the “Rocket Gunboat Groups,” which manned converted landing craft equipped with barrage rockets.
On LCI(G) 471, part of Rocket Gunboat Group 8 in the Central Pacific theater, Lt. Crandall participated in the landings at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Peleliu, Saipan, Tinian, and Guam before the invasion of Iwo Jima, where the 471 lost half of her crew when the Japanese mistakenly concluded that the demolition teams and Rocket Gunboats were the actual invasion force.
Rocket Gunboat Group 8 was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for Kwajalein and the Presidential Unit Citation for Iwo Jima. Lt. Crandall was awarded the Navy and Marine Corp medal for rescuing two marine pilots under enemy fire at Guam, and the Bronze Star with Combat V for bravery under fire at Iwo Jima. He received a battlefield promotion at Iwo Jima to skipper of the flagship LCI(G) 457. Following World War II, Mr. Crandall served in the reserves on the USS Gato (submarine service).
After returning from the Central Pacific, Mr. Crandall attended medical school, he said, so no one ever would die on his watch for his lack of knowledge. At Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he met the woman who would be his partner for almost 70 years, Elizabeth Jones. The two interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York and completed residency at the Hospital Center at Orange, New Jersey. He then spent two years as chief resident in Orange before moving on to Francis Delafield Hospital doing cancer research.
Dr. Crandall subsequently established a private practice in the South Orange-Maplewood area and was on the medical staffs of the Hospital Center at Orange, East Orange General Hospital and St. Barnabas Medical Center, serving all three institutions in multiple capacities. At East Orange General, Dr. Crandall was instrumental in establishing the first intensive care unit in New Jersey. He finished his professional career as medical director and chief underwriter at Prudential Life Insurance Company and then at Guardian Life in New York.
An ardent conservationist, Dr. Crandall believed deeply in community involvement, his family said. He was instrumental in saving from development Camp Glen Gray in the Ramapo Mountains, Sunfish Pond in Worthington State Forest, and the Hilltop Reservation on Second Watchung Mountain. A lifelong Boy Scout and former Eagle Scout, he served as scoutmaster of Troop 3 in Maplewood, and led a backpacking trek to Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico, as well as a wilderness canoe trip into Quebec. He received the Silver Beaver Award for distinguished service.
Dr. Crandall served for nearly 20 years as the football team physician at Columbia High School and was inducted into the CHS Athletic Hall of Fame. He was a long-term member and former president of the Kiwanis Club of Maplewood, as well as the New Jersey Medical Club, the oldest medical club in the state. For many years he was a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club, serving for a time as its Fleet surgeon, as well as a trustee of Union Chapel in the Heights.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Crandall is survived by his daughter, Marilyn Crandall Jones, M.D., of San Diego; his son, the Honorable Charles Stevens Crandall of San Luis Obispo; granddaughters Abigail Elizabeth Jones of Washington D.C. and Joanne Elizabeth Crandall of San Luis Obispo; and grandson, Warren Stevens Crandall of Boston. He was predeceased by his sons Richard Squire Crandall and David Jones Crandall.
The family has lost a beloved father, the community an engaged citizen, and America an honored son, his family said.
Arrangements for a memorial service are pending. Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to the Friends of Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (Basking Ridge, New Jersey), the Kennebec Land Trust (Winthrop, Maine), or the Civil War Trust (Hagerstown, Maryland).