- Date Of Birth: June 19, 1929
- Date Of Death: September 27, 2019
- State: Arizona
Leland (Lee) Crabtree of Paradise Valley shuffled off this mortal coil at 4:01PM 27 September,
2019. Lee came from humble beginnings in a small Appalachian mountain village or “holler”
called Windy. There he and his sister Ruby grew up on the tiny family farm which saw them
through the Great Depression better than most city dwellers. They seized opportunities for
higher education, earning university degrees. Lee became a university instructor and at one
point taught the same class he was taking for credit. There he met Louise Taylor and the two
married. Then fate intervened as the US Army called him to serve as an instructor in the new
tech field of radar-guided gunnery at Fort Bliss, TX where most of his students outranked him
by many levels. Having had enough of Army life, he and Louise moved west to California where
Lee worked at Douglas Aircraft as an engineer. From there, they moved to St. Paul, Minnesota
where Lee worked for Univac Computers before a return to California and a new opportunity
with GE Computer in Phoenix where he was to spend the rest of his life.
Lee was a computer scientist before the term existed and was at the forefront of developing
the technology which propelled IT as we know it today, working alongside the father of
eventual film director Steven Spielberg, also a GE Computer scientist. Computers were
massive and clients were large banks and NASA where he designed and installed computers
for Werner Von Braun and his R&D teams.
flights to Phoenix had to go through LAX and JFK, no matter the origin or destination. He
would often meet up with Senator Barry Goldwater in airports. They would arrange to sit
together and would talk tech, some of which ended up in Barry’s teched-out car he called
“Spot”. It was an AMX outside but an aircraft on the inside. While he and Barry differed on
politics, they were able to find many areas of agreement and fun.
As companies and markets transitioned, Lee found himself at the GE Electronic Components
a Top Secret clearance from his previous Army endeavor, he was able to work on sensitive
military projects and would tell his wife in the middle of the night, “I have to go somewhere” but
could not say where. Lee left GE and set up his own business providing engineered solutions
to companies in the southwest in utility, mining and data processing industries.
Lee enjoyed the warmth of the southwest, loved the Native Americans and respected their
many unique cultures and wished that “people would just leave them the hell alone”. He loved
the richness of Mexican culture and Mexican People and was a lifelong advocate for equal
rights and treatment of marginalized groups of all kinds. Like Goldwater, he found himself
labeled a liberal as politics changed and his values remained the same. He was proud to be a
“flaming liberal” and loved to needle those he called “the lunatic fringe”. He enjoyed travel and
as YouTube became a “thing”, he enjoyed following creators of unique technology on his
collection of iPads and computers.
Lee is survived by his wife of 67 years, Louise, son John, sister Ruby Stephens Keeton and
family dog, Flaco Jimenez.
slap-up binge of a party for family and friends. If you feel like doing something in
remembrance, help someone in need or donate to Arizona Animal Welfare League or Hospice
of the Valley.
Blue Moon of Kentucky, Keep on Shining. – Bill Monroe
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
– Robert Frost
