Voices

Public servant

He knew how governments and budgets worked, was an honest and loyal executive under four Anchorage mayors and an Alaska governor, and after the better part of 35 years in public service had a reputation as a straight shooter who quietly helped make Anchorage work.

That's not a bad epitaph for a man.

That's the public legacy of Larry Crawford, who died of cancer last week at 73.

Crawford last worked in city government as Mayor Dan Sullivan's chief of staff until late March 2010. He first worked in city government for Mayor George Sullivan, the current mayor's father, and put together the first municipal budget after the unification of the borough and city governments in 1975.

That was a tumultuous merger of sometimes warring governments and personalities -- what a veteran reporter described as "merging Kamchatka with western Alaska." Arliss Sturgulewski, who served on the Assembly then and later ran for governor, said, "We just dumped all the battles into that pot." The new municipality managed the conflicts.

"The community was fortunate to have good leadership and certainly Larry was part of that," she said.

Don Smith, currently serving on the school board and another who was present at the creation of the municipality in the mid-70s, recalled Crawford as "an easy guy to work with and smart as a whip.

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"He wasn't flashy, he wasn't out trying to get headlines. He just did his job and he did an outstanding job."

Sturgulewski described him as a "consummate employee" with no desire to upstage his mayor or governor. He wasn't political. He respected the position of mayor or governor as the person the people elected. But Larry Baker, who succeeded Crawford as Mayor Dan Sullivan's chief of staff, said he wasn't a "yes" man, either.

"Larry spoke his mind, and gave his advice," Baker said. Mayors were wise to listen, given Crawford's experience and what Baker called his "phenomenal" knowledge of the municipal charter and the functioning of both city and state governments, his "instant recall of facts."

Once a mayor gave his direction, Crawford was adept at making it work.

"He was very confident in his decisions, and able to reach out to the varying factions," Baker said. "... He had this uncanny skill in bringing out the best out of people, to get the maximum results out of diverging points of opinion."

Crawford was a quiet steward who served his city and state well and had the trust of his colleagues. Anchorage will miss a man who both set a high standard and showed how to meet it.

BOTTOM LINE: Anchorage loses a superb public servant in Larry Crawford.

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