Henry Lee Crawford, a retired machinist and World War II veteran, died Thursday of prostate cancer at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Queenstown resident was 83.
Mr. Crawford was born in Yancy, Va., and raised in Harrisonburg, Va. He enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served as a tank gunner with Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s 3rd Army.
He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, participated in the liberation of Paris and fought at the battle of Hurtgen Forest, which raged on the Belgian-German border from September 1944 until February 1945.
"He was the turret gunner and he was blasted out of his tank. Amazingly, he was uninjured and able to walk out," said his daughter, Jacqueline V. Harrington of Ellicott City.
After the war, he went to work as a tool and die maker for Scandia Manufacturing Co., a Baltimore-based defense contractor.
After retiring in 1986, he became a consultant for the Navy focusing on the repair and installation of antenna systems for nuclear submarines.
An accomplished carpenter, he single-handedly built his West Friendship home, where he had lived until moving to Queenstown in 1987.
Mr. Crawford also liked making fine furniture for family and friends, and enjoyed working in his vegetable and flower gardens.
He was an avid boater and fisherman and was a member and former commodore of the Kent Island Yacht Club.
He was a former longtime communicant of St. John Episcopal Church, 9120 Frederick Road, Ellicott City, where a memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 20.
Also surviving are his wife of 60 years, the former Dora K. Pyne; two sons, Brian D. Crawford of Arlington, Va., and Roger L. Crawford of Winchester, Va.; four sisters, Gladys Myers of Hampstead, Beatrice Bahr of Catonsville, and Virginia Hiebler and Mildred Romonouskas, both of Shenandoah, Va.; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.