Robert Edwin Crouch papers

Robert E. Crouch was born March 16, 1905, in Fortville, Indiana, and came to DePauw University in 1923 as a Rector Scholar. He earned the B.A. degree in 1927 and the M.B.A. from Harvard in 1929, going then to work at the First National City Bank of New York for the next 12 years. In 1941 Mr. Crouch was appointed secretary of alumni affairs and the first executive secretary of the DePauw Alumni Fund, starting the development of what would become the University's extensive national alumni program. He served in this capacity for 25 years, playing key roles in three highly successful capital gift campaigns and in the construction of the Memorial Student Union Building. Mr. Crouch was appointed vice president for development in 1966 and retired - for the first time - in 1970. He returned to the service of the University for one year in 1971, and again as a special consultant to President Richard F. Rosser. The Board of Trustees made him an emeritus vice president in 1977. Countless alumni he worked with during his more than 30 years as a University administrator affectionately characterized him as "Mr. DePauw." They voted him the University's "Alumnus of the Year" in 1976 and awarded him the Old Gold Goblet. In recognition of his and Mrs. Crouch's devotion to DePauw, the University and its national alumni association created the Robert and Nell Crouch Scholarhip for deserving DePauw students. Mr. Crouch served on the board of directors of Methodism's Northwest Indiana Home Corporation and the Methodist Children's Home in Lebanon. He was director of the First Citizen's Bank and Trust Company of Greencastle, a former trustee of Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church, and a leader in the Putnam County United Way. He was a member of Sigma Chi social fraternity and the Society of Professional Journalists / Sigma Delta Chi. Robert E. Crouch passed away November 30, 1982. He was survived by his widow, Nell Lockridge Crouch, and a sister, Mrs. Stanley Murray of Toledo, Ohio. A son, John, died in 1955.