Death of Pearl Harbor Survivor William Crosswell Croft in 2009

From the March 27, 2009, Chicago Sun-Times "Pearl Harbor survivor, businessman."

He married Barbara Engh, at one time a resident of Sycamore, Illinois, where I came across her name as being "Color Girl" of the USNA Class of 1940.

Whenever he was asked about his health, William Croft would say. "I'm rugged.  I'm rugged."

He was a young naval officer on the battleship USS California at Pearl Harbor that fateful day in which almost 100 of its crew were lost in the Japanese attack.  He was also on the battleship USS Indiana when it collided with the the USS Washington in which ten crew were killed.

Mr. Croft, 91, of Northbrook, Illinois, died of pneumonia Saturday at Glenbrook Hospital, March 21, 2009.

He married Barbara Engh in 1942.  She was "The One" from the moment he met her on a blind date in 1939.  They were married for 67 years.

William Crosswell Croft was born January 8, 1918, in Greenville, South Carolina.  In the Navy he rose from the rank of ensign to lieutenant-commander.

--GreGen