Truman Crawford

Colonel Truman W. "Tru" Crawford (USMC) (April 1, 1934 – March 3, 2003) was a music arranger, composer, and conductor for drum and bugle corps. He was the long-time commander and director of "The Commandant's Own," the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps after having previously served as musical director of the United States Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps.

Biography

A native of Endicott, New York, Truman Crawford performed in a local fife and drum corps from the age of eight. He gained rapid promotion, becoming the unit's senior non-commissioned officer and musical director. As Glenn Miller had done with the Army Air Force Band during World War II, Crawford transformed the unit from a staid, martial music unit into a swinging, contemporary musical ensemble before the corps was disbanded in 1963.

Leaving the Air Force after the drum corps' demise, Crawford moved to Chicago, where he went to work in a music store. He continued to write arrangements for drum corps, many of which he had begun his involvement with while in the Air Force. He worked especially closely with the Chicago Royal Airs Drum and Bugle Corps, which in 1965, playing Crawford's arrangements, became the only drum corps to win the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Catholic Youth Organization National Championships in the same season. By 1967, Crawford was credited with writing arrangements performed by a great majority of the senior and junior drum and bugle corps in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Colonel Truman Crawford conducting the USMC Drum and Bugle Corps.

Due to his reputation and popularity in the drum corps world, in 1966, Crawford was asked to join the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps as chief musical arranger. At the time of his retirement in 1996, Col. Crawford was the oldest Marine on active duty. the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame, the Bands of America Hall of Fame, and the Maryland Drum and Bugle Corps Hall of Fame.

Crawford was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the National Honorary Band Fraternity and was awarded that organization's 1979-81 Distinguished Service to Music Medal for marching band.

On September 14, 2009, the new headquarters of the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps at the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. was dedicated as Colonel Truman W. Crawford Hall.