ST. LOUIS (AP) – Walter “Stormy” Crawford Jr., whose founding of one of North America’s largest bird conservation and rehabilitation centers was fueled by a childhood spent in Venezuela fascinated by exotic jungle birds, has died in Missouri. He was 70.
Crawford, executive director of the World Bird Sanctuary in suburban St. Louis, died at a hospital Friday after complications from a recent hip surgery, said Jeff Meshach, the sanctuary’s director. The sanctuary – spanning roughly 300 acres of hardwood forest – has rehabilitated and returned more than 800 raptors to the wild since Crawford founded it in the late 1970s.
“With his passing, it’s unbelievable how many emails we get, phone calls, people showing up here. Everybody is in shock,” Meshach told The Associated Press on Monday. “As overwhelming as it might be, it’s just humbling and a good experience to know how many he touched around the country and world.”
Crawford spent his boyhood years in Venezuela, where his father worked as a field engineer for a petroleum company – an experience that influenced Crawford’s eventual decision to make ornithology his career.
The affable Army veteran served in the Vietnam War and later attended colleges in Missouri and Mississippi before getting a job at the St. Louis Zoo.