Jean Bass Crawford, editor of Vanderbilt Magazine for 29 years and former director of Vanderbilt’s Office of Alumni Publications, died Aug. 7 in Nashville. She was 89.
Crawford, a former reporter for the Nashville Banner newspaper, joined the Vanderbilt staff in 1964 as editor of the Vanderbilt Alumnus (renamed Vanderbilt Magazine in 1986), a time when the publication consisted primarily of campus announcements and alumni news gathered from class agents. Under her leadership the magazine expanded greatly to include a broader range of features relevant to the university’s alumni.
During her tenure as editor, Vanderbilt Magazine went from a black-and-white publication produced with hot metal type to a full-color magazine produced with computers. She also built a team of writers and editors to handle the challenge of keeping alumni engaged with and invested in Vanderbilt. She rose to director of the Office of Alumni Publications, which produced publications for each of Vanderbilt’s undergraduate and professional schools, while also continuing to serve as editor of Vanderbilt Magazine until her retirement in 1993.
“Jean had a reporter’s nose for a good story and was endlessly curious,” says GayNelle Doll, who was hired by Crawford in 1986 and just finished her own tenure as editor of Vanderbilt Magazine in March. “She nurtured many young writers and delighted in our individual quirks and idiosyncrasies. She fostered an atmosphere of collaboration and inquiry that made Alumni Publications a fun place to work.”
Born and educated in Nashville, Crawford edited her high school newspaper. She attended Vanderbilt in the late 1940s as an undergraduate—joining Tri Delta sorority, the A Cappella Choir and Lotus Eaters, and writing for the Vanderbilt Hustler—and again in the late 1950s as a graduate student. But it was Randolph-Macon Woman’s College from which she earned her bachelor’s degree, and afterward she became a general assignment reporter for the Nashville Banner. In 1950 she married Dr. John K. Crawford, a plastic surgeon, and left the Banner, but returned in 1952 upon the death of her husband. She remained at the Banner until joining Vanderbilt in 1964.
“Administrations come and go, but for 135,000 loyal alumni, the essence of Vanderbilt was Jean Crawford and her magazine,” says Gary Gore, the first university designer at Vanderbilt and director of the Office of Publications and Design until 1996.
Crawford is survived by her daughter, son-in-law, two grandsons and extended family.
—BONNIE ARANT ERTELT