T. Stephen Crawford

Thomas Stephen Crawford (1900-1987) was an American chemical engineer known for his research in coal, coal tar and coal gasification. He was a long-serving (1945-1968) dean of the college of engineering at the University of Rhode Island, and namesake of Crawford Hall at the university.

Biography T. Stephen Crawford was born in the village of Linton-on-Ouse, near Durham, England on 14 January 1900 to John and Sarah Jane Crawford. John Crawford was employed as a coal miner in the Durham region until he and his whole family immigrated to America in 1913 aboard the RMS Lusitania. The family settled in Kingwood, West Virginia. Upon graduation from high school in 1918, Crawford began his career following his father by working as a coal miner in Elkins Mine #4 near Kingwood. He took his B.S. in chemistry at West Virginia University in 1925, and went on at the same institution to earn his master's degree in chemistry in 1927. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Columbia University in 1931. Crawford married Charlotte Sibert Grayson (1907-1997) in 1930, and they had one daughter, Phyllis Lenore (Crawford) Grdenick (b. 1940).

Crawford began his professional career as a chemical engineer with the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company in 1931.