Charles Eben Crandall

Charles Eben Crandall, M.D., of Maplewood, New Jersey, and Shelter Island, New York, died on April 15, 2017, after a brief illness.
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. With encouragement from his English teacher, Sarah Joyner, Crandall attended Princeton University.
After graduating with a degree in chemistry, Crandall enlisted in the Navy, thereafter completing officer candidate school at Notre Dame and engineering school at Cornell. After declining an assignment to shore patrol, he volunteered for the newly constituted Rocket Gunboat Groups. Rocket Gunboats were converted landing craft that were equipped with barrage rockets to support the underwater demolition teams that cleared the beaches of obstacles in advance of Marine landings. Because of their hazardous mission, only half of the Rocket Gunboats were expected to return home.
On LCI(G) 471, part of Rocket Gunboat Group 8 in the Central Pacific theater, Lt. Crandall, chief engineering officer, 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. 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 and led Rocket Gunboat Group 8 as it steamed towards the anticipated invasion of Japan that never came. Following WW II, Crandall served in the reserves on the USS Gato (submarine service).
After returning from the Central Pacific, Crandall made a decision to attend medical school so that 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.
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, 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 arden conservationist, Crandall believed deeply in community involvement. 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 life-long 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, Canada. He was responsible for health and safety of all of the scout camps in the Northern New Jersey Council and received the Silver Beaver Award for distinguished service.
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 New Jersey. 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.
Crandall leaves behind his wife of nearly 70 years, Elizabeth Jones Crandall, M.D., a daughter, Marilyn Crandall Jones, M.D., of San Diego, a son, the Hon. Charles Stevens Crandall of San Luis Obispo, two granddaughters Abigail Elizabeth Jones of Washington D.C., Joanne Elizabeth Crandall of San Luis Obispo and grandson, Warren Stevens Crandall of Boston. He was predeceased by two children, Richard Squire Crandall and David Jones Crandall.
The family has lost a beloved father, the community an engaged citizen, and America an honored son. 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).