Pine resident, E. Dennis Crosby, passed away early Wednesday morning, Nov. 12, 2014, in Payson Regional Medical Center after recurring health complications caused his heart to stop. He was 78 years old.
Dennis, as he was known by his friends, was new to the area, having moved here 2-1/2 years ago, with his sister, from Colorado.
Mr. Crosby was a native of Warren, Pa., where he was born, and St. Marys, Pa., where he lived and went to school. After graduation, his family moved to North Olmsted (Cleveland) Ohio, and as soon as he could, he went to Lorain, Ohio, where he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Once through boot camp in Great Lakes, Mich., he was assigned to VF-142, Carrier Air Group 14, which went to sea on the USS Boxer CVA-21. At first, he was stationed at North Island near San Diego, Calif., but wound up sailing to Yokusha, Japan. Daily duties were pretty dull — swabbing the deck, working on the aircraft, but during his weekend leaves, he would go sightseeing around the islands with his buddy, Smitty. He rented a taxi and went to Yokahama and Tokyo, checking out areas of local color, especially Hiroshima and the Imperial Palace. He also visited Osaka, where he toured Osaka Castle, Kobe and Iwakune, typical Japanese towns, and met a lot of great people while he was there.
After seven months on the USS Boxer, his unit and he were assigned to the USS Hornet CV-12. After a 10-month cruise, to such exotic ports as Guam and Manila, he transferred to FASRON 8, NAS Alameda in northern California.
Weekends off were spent tooling around Oakland and The City, which is what the locals call San Francisco, with his buddy Larry, who wanted to see as many of the tourist traps as he did. As expected, they got into the kind of trouble that most enlisted guys get into when they’re turned loose in a big city! They were lucky that they never wound up in the brig!
Upon his discharge he relocated to Cudahy, Calif., where he lived for about a year, then moved to Maywood, Calif. where he lived for about 40 years. During that time he worked as a draftsman for several companies, for a total of approximately 30 years.
When his last company, IMC Magnetics, relocated to Tucson, Ariz. he opted to remain in L.A., since he knew that the temperatures in the desert would be too hot and dry for him. After about two years of fruitless job hunting, he found work as a security guard for Command Security in Buena Park, Calif. which lasted about 10 years.
In 2001, he moved to Golden, Colo., to live with his sister, Carrie, but it wasn’t long before they moved west to the resort town of Durango, which is in the southwestern corner of Colorado.
He had already retired (at the age of 62) so hunting for a job in this very limited job market didn’t give him a bit of trouble. He was able to kick back and relax, take long walks along the county road he lived on and, when he would get the time and money, he and his sister would take a picnic lunch and go for long drives in the San Juan Mountains and visit some of the ghost towns that dot the back country. There are a lot of old gold and silver mining towns tucked away in the mountains there and, although he had been to a number of them, there were still quite a few that he hadn’t made it to yet.
One of his favorite hobbies was to go wildlife hunting, with the camera, of course. Being a former photographer in L.A., there were several herds of elk that wintered down in the valley, along with mule deer, black bear, bighorn sheep and mountain lions that were very photo-worthy. To Dennis, it was almost like being back home in Pennsylvania!
Back in 2012, after a third stroke almost ended his life, he and his sister moved once again, this time to Pine, Ariz., where he had wanted to live for many years. They found a house off the main highway, on a cul-de-sac, that afforded him the opportunity to see more of the wildlife he loved so much. He was finally home to stay.
He is survived by his sister, Carrie, who will be holding an intimate get-together at their house to celebrate Dennis’ life. The date for this is yet to be determined.
He will be missed.
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Obituary for E. Dennis Crosby
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