Leslie E. Crowley, a retired landscape designer and retired noncommissioned career Army officer, died of cancer Monday at Good Samaritan Hospital. The Aberdeen resident was 74.

Mr. Crowley was born and raised on Crowley Island in Corea, Maine. After graduating from high school in Winter Harbor, Maine, in 1947, he enlisted in the Army. An ordnance instructor, he served at posts in Tennessee, Guam, Ethiopia, Iran and at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. He was discharged with the rank of sergeant in 1968.

He then worked as a civilian employee at APG, where he was named Instructor of the Year in 1970.

Mr. Crowley later was employed as a landscape designer in Harford and Cecil counties for Bott's Landscaping. After that he worked for Landscape Associates in Baltimore until retiring in 1999. He also was an instructor in landscape design at Cecil Community College.

Earlier, he had also taught and mentored many students at the Job Corps Center at the old Bainbridge Naval Training Center at Port Deposit.

For years, he also operated Record Recyclers, a Havre de Grace store that specialized in vintage 78 rpm and LP recordings. He also enjoyed fishing, gardening and bricklaying.

Services are private.

Mr. Crowley is survived by his wife of 51 years, the former Priscilla Foster; two sons, Mervyn P. Crowley of Linthicum, and Alex D. Crowley of Hampstead; a daughter, Brenda J. Crowley of Cedar Hill, Texas; a sister, Margery Brown of Cherryfield, Maine; and three grandchildren.