Howard Allen Craw, Jr.

1917 - 2003

H. Allen Craw spent most of his music career at La Sierra University, where he taught piano, music history, and theory. He was known for his artistry on the piano and his effectiveness as a teacher in the studio and classroom.

Allen was born in Republican City, Nebraska, on December 28, 1917, the youngest of five children of Howard Allen and Flora Fredonia Tillotson Craw. At the time of the 1930 federal census, they were residing in Michigan. He graduated from Battle Creek Central High School in 1935, and by the time he enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 1, 1942, he had completed two years of college. He married Frances Ellen Bartlett on two days later on July 3. Craw served as a clerk in the United States Army during World War II.

After finishing a B.A. in music in 1946 at Emmanuel Missionary College, now Andrews University, he accepted a position at Southwestern Junior College, now Southwestern Adventist University, where he taught for four years. Craw completed an M.Mus. in music education at North Texas State University in 1948, while teaching at SJC. He accepted an invitation to join the music department at LSU in 1950 and in 1964 completed a Ph.D. in musicology at the University of Southern California.

His doctoral dissertation was titled A Biography and Thematic Catalogue of the Works of J. L. Dussek (1760-1812). Craw was honored with an invitation to write the entry about Dussek, an 18^th century Czech pianist and composer and contemporary of Beethoven, for the 1980 edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. It would be included in subsequent revisions including the 1993 twenty-volume edition.

Craw taught at LSU for three decades and helped chair the music department in the 1970's. He retired at the end of that decade. He and his wife, Frances Ellen (Bartlett), were residing in St. Helena, California, when he died on April 8, 2003, at age 85.

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Sources: H. Allen Craw Curriculum Vita; La Sierra College Bulletin Description, 1961-62; Loma Linda University (La Sierra Campus) Music Department news release about his work being included in Groves, unknown date; 1930 U.S. Federal Census; Social Security Death Index; Obituary for Howard A. Craw, Sr., Lake Union Herald, 8 March 1960, 12; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.