Fred Crawford was born in Atlanta, Ga., on May 15, 1946 and moved to Birmingham, and New Orleans by the time he started school. On to Meridian, Mississippi and then his high school years were spent back in Birmingham, Al. Fred went to college at Alabama College that was soon renamed the University of Montevallo, located in Montevallo, Alabama.
His career began by teaching and then moving to association work. He worked in several positions with the Alabama Hospital Association ending as the Sr. Vice President of Governmental Affairs after sixteen years. After working with another association, he began working in Alabama’s Governor Guy Hunt administration and then was appointed the 47th Secretary of State for Alabama. After completing work in the Secretary of State office he began his own firm of managing small association and political consulting. Clients that Fred had contracts with included several health care and highway construction companies and associations. After thirty-three years of governmental and association consulting work, he retired. To end his career, he went back to work doing Economic Development for Chilton County, Alabama, and then retired a second time.
Giving back was always part of Fred’s makeup. Boards he has been on include: USS Alabama Battleship Memorial, University of Montevallo’s Board of Trustees, Montevallo’s National Alumni Association, and UM’s Foundation, USS Battleship Alabama Foundation, the American Village-Citizenship Trust, and the Alabama Association of Association Executives. On several of these boards he was an officer.
Fred now lives in Fairhope, Alabama with his wife Carol and between them, they have four children and fourteen (14) grandchildren and one great grandson.