“Wired with Purpose: John’s Legacy of Faith, Fatherhood, and Fortitude”

"John Crawford"

Even at 87 years old, John has a spark and a sharpness in his voice that commands your attention making you sit up and listen. He may be retired now, but his life is still full of energy—both the kind that powered a city and the kind that fueled a family.



John’s story begins at 16, working summer jobs with his uncle, a respected electrical contractor in the city of St. Louis. Those summers planted a seed and initiated his love for the electrical trade. After graduating from high school, John entered the Navy, where his technical training and discipline deepened. He served aboard ship as an electrician’s apprentice and quickly rose to the rank of Electrician’s Mate Second Class by the time he was honorably discharged in 1960.

When he returned to St. Louis, John continued working for his uncle, but his path soon took a bold turn. In 1962, Congressman Bill Clay encouraged him to take the city’s electrician exam. At that time, the construction trades were heavily segregated, and Black workers were often kept from meaningful opportunities. John not only took the exam—he scored the highest possible mark.

But even excellence wasn’t enough to earn him acceptance.

Despite his score, John was told he wasn’t qualified. In fact, it took legal support from his family and Congressman Clay to finally open the door. John became the first Black electrician on the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) team in the city of St. Louis. But instead of being celebrated, he was shunned.

“I was the fly in the ice cream,” he says. “No one wanted to work with me. No one wanted to have lunch with me. It was lonely.”

The rejection was isolating, and the emotional toll was heavy. But John showed up anyway—because he had a wife and three daughters who were depending on him. He endured the abuse not out of weakness, but out of conviction. He knew what was at stake – he had his wife and three girls that were watching.

Over the next several years, the union shuffled him between job sites, but with every move came greater income and growing recognition. Eventually, John joined Anheuser-Busch—first on the bottling line, trouble-shooting complex machinery, and then later at the corporate office. He ended his career maintaining the personal properties of Gussie Busch himself.

But it wasn’t just his career that kept him going. It was his faith.

John shared that his faith provided guidance and gave him hope—especially in the Navy, where early on he was told he’d never be more than a steward’s mate. The military may have been officially desegregated, but old mindsets lingered. It was John’s belief in God—and in his God-given worth—that helped him push past barriers others accepted.

“Faith gave me hope,” he says. “It gave me the desire to do better.”

Now, John looks at his children’s lives and sees the fruit of his labor. They understand the sacrifices he made. They understand what it means to work hard, push forward, and lead with integrity.

His advice to young fathers today is simple and powerful:

“Have hope. Desire to do better. Society might try to knock you down—especially young Black men - but there are more opportunities now than ever. Get an education. Find something you love doing. Work at it. Don’t accept minimum wage—strive to do better.”

More than anything, John wants to be a light—not just in his home, but in his community and profession. He wants young people to see what’s possible. His life may have been filled with hardship, but it has also been filled with purpose—and that’s what he hopes others will carry forward.