William Crawford, 86; Soviet Expert Served in 5 U.S. Envoy Posts
William Avery Crawford, 86, a specialist in Soviet and Eastern European affairs who was U.S. ambassador to Romania during the Cold War, died Friday of natural causes at his home in Bethesda, Md.
Crawford served in Havana, Moscow, Paris and Prague, Czechoslovakia, before President Kennedy named him minister to then-communist Romania in 1961. Crawford became ambassador when the legation in Romania gained full embassy status in 1964.
Crawford and his first wife, Barbara, founded the American International School to teach the children of U.S. diplomats in Bucharest, Romania. The school began in 1962 with two teachers and six students, and today has about 400 students.
The diplomat retired from the Foreign Service in 1970. He then taught at the Landon School in Bethesda and served for 10 years as director of foreign relations for a marketing firm in Washington.
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