Cracroft, R. Paul

R. Paul Cracroft (1922-2008) was born in Salt Lake City to Ralph Cracroft and Grace Darling White Cracroft. He attended East High School, and graduated from the University of Utah, where he received his B.A. in English Literature in 1939, and then his M.A. in 1954. In the interim, he served a mission for the LDS church in the North Central States from 1942-1944, and after that, enlisted in the Army from 1944-1946, where he attained the rank of 1st Lieutenant. During this period of time, he also married Kathryn (Kay) Storrs in 1944, and with her had six children. R. Paul Cracroft worked for the Salt Lake Tribune from 1947-1948 as a campus and general reporter, and left to became the Assistant Director of Public Relations at the U from 1948-1951. From 1951-1956, he was Sen. Wallace Bennett's Press Secretary until he returned again to the U as Assistant Director, from 1955-1956. R. Paul Cracroft spent much of the rest of his career at the University of Utah. He was the Promotion Director for the Summer Festival productions, 1948-1951, was the U's first unofficial Sports Information Director and Statistician in the same years. From 1956-1967, he was the Executive Director of the University of Utah Alumni Association, and also served as an editor to "The Utah Alumnus." He was the Director of Lectures and Concerts from 1967-1980, and concurently the Manager of Kingsbury Hall from 1977-1990, when he retired. R. Paul Cracroft also taught Journalism at the U from 1964-1975, and as a fill-in until 1980. After that, he taught again in 1985.

In his own words, R. Paul Cracroft's life:

Ironic, huh? First time my pic's run in the paper in years, and I'm not around to clip the obit. Tough! I was called up by heart trouble, cancer, diabetes, etc. – elderly man stuff. But few have had a more delightful time on Earth than I – and you can bet your last buck I'd have hung around, given a choice.

I was born at home at 821 Markea Ave. in Salt Lake City on Oct. 7, 1922, to Ralph and Grace Darling White Cracroft. I was educated at Wasatch, Bryant Jr. and East High schools where I made many lifelong friends.

I decided at age 13 that I wanted to write. At 16 I was elected editor of East High's Red & Black for 1939 and won the first All-American rating for a high school paper in Utah's history. After working for a year to save the exorbitant tuition costs at the University of Utah (30 dollars per quarter during the Depression!), I enrolled there, majoring in English and writing for all of the student publications, winning campus and regional honors and editing the literary magazine, Pen, in 1948.

My friend Heber Hart arranged a fateful blind date for me on Aug. 23, 1941, with Kathryn Storrs. She and I celebrated our 63rd wedding anniversary in 2007. From June 1942 to July 1944, I served in the North Central States mission, headquartered in Minneapolis. If the field was white and ready to harvest, I must have served out-of-season, but I enjoyed my 25 months away from my lady-in-waiting, making few converts besides myself.

When I returned home in late July 1944, the draft board all but met my bus. Kay and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple by Elder (later President) Harold B. Lee on Aug. 16, 1944. Then I donned the uniform of a buck private at Ft. Douglas to train at Camp Roberts, CA. Kay went with me. When the Battle of the Bulge hit at Christmastime 1944, I was sent to Ft. Benning, GA, where I was commissioned a shavetail lieutenant. I shipped out on Aug. 12, 1945, on the USS George Clymer for what I later learned was the planned invasion of Japan. Messrs. Tojo and Hirohito had learned I was coming, so in wise terror, they surrendered when I was just two days at sea.

Re-entering college in January 1947 (BA ’48, MA ’54), I worked as a reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune and then for Parry Sorensen as assistant director of public relations at the "U.” From 1951 to 1955, I served in Washington, D.C., as first press secretary to the late Senator Wallace F. Bennett. Returning to the “U” in 1955, I worked for more than 35 years in public relations as executive director of the Alumni Association, director of Lectures and Concerts, instructor in Journalism and, until my retirement in 1990, as manager of Kingsbury Hall. In this last position I initiated the first serious considerations that led to renovation of that great hall.

From 1959-1973, I hosted “Retrospect,” a news analysis show on KUED, Channel 7, which, in those early years, made it the longest-running sustained weekly program on the educational channel. Walter Cronkite I was not, but then he was no Paul Cracroft! For 36 years I also served as statistician for the U’s home football games, typing play-by-plays and spotting for Paul James at “away” games during many of those years.

As an active member of the LDS Church, I have been blessed to serve twice as a member of the High Council of the University of Utah Stake, twice as a bishopric counselor, Bishop of the Parleys Fourth Ward (1977-1982), and Parleys Stake high councilman. I helped write the History of Parleys Stake from its official founding in 1958 to 2000. I have been an officer or teacher in all Church auxiliaries since I was 16.

For four years, I was primary caregiver to my sweet Kay during her onset of Alzheimer’s Disease until September 2004, when I underwent surprise surgery for a malignant thymus coupled with six-bypass heart surgery. There followed five weeks of radiation and months of rehab to learn how to walk and regain balance and how to talk and swallow again, thanks to a paralyzed vocal chord. My scratchy voice led me to rename myself “Golden Throat.”

Wherever life has taken me, I’ve kept writing. In 1979 I published A Certain Testimony, a 479-page epic poem based on the Book of Mormon. I have written several plays. Sam’s Place dealt with the history of Sam Weller’s Zion Book Store and was staged by both City Rep and the Babcock Performing Readers at the “U.” Later the BPR staged Letter Perfect, a mixture of fact and fiction told through a long exchange of letters. Officer’s Mess dealt with a personal experience during the occupation of Japan. Another play, Escape to Freedom, tells the true story of feisty Liuda Avizonis, who led her family out of Lithuania when she was just six years old, past Russian and German soldiers. In the days just before my death, I was putting the finishing touches on yet another play, Shadows on the Moon, based on the scriptural account of Coriantumr.

I fully expect that I am now reunited with my sweetheart Kay, who passed away in September 2007, and with grandsons Thomas Paul and Bryant Jeffrey Parker, who left us early to gather bricks for our mansion in heaven. Immediate family who also did not “go gentle into that good night” are my parents and older brother Laurance White Cracroft. I hope to see the rest of you – later!

I leave behind my sister Helen Grace Cracroft White and my brother Richard H. (Janice) Cracroft; my children, Kathy (Don) Wilhelmsen, Shauni (Kent) Young, Patricia (Kent) Parker, David (Terese) Cracroft, Paul Jeffry (Kathryn) Cracroft, and Randy (Gwen) Cracroft; 19 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008, at 11:00 a.m., at Parley’s 4th Ward chapel, 1870 E. Parley’s Canyon Blvd. (2330 South), Salt Lake City. Friends may visit with family Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary, 3401 S. Highland Drive, Salt Lake City, and at the church from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. prior to the services. Condolences may be extended online at www.mem.com.

Since I can no longer write letters to the editor, this obituary will be my last hurrah!

From the guide to the R. Paul Cracroft papers, 1942-2007, (University of Utah)