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FEATURE

THE PAST

a Navy sailor. Before joining the Navy, he
In 1996, Bill Crawford and Eugene Mini saw a need for
took the electrician’s aptitude test, where
young professionals to have access to training because, he scored at the top of his class thanks
at the time, there was no national effort available to to his vocational school training. He was
equip electrical trainees or apprentices. “You don’t need shipped to California and transferred to
Pearl Harbor, where he was assigned to
a crowd to get things done,” Bill observed. “You only need serve on a mine sweeper. He was a striker
one or two committed people to believe in what you want electrician on his stationed ship. In 1945,
to do.” Crawford saw the IEC as a solution to provide following news of the atomic bombing
on Hiroshima, Bill’s ship was ordered to
training and the necessary continued funding to train
head for the mainland, where his ship was
future electricians. As a member of the IEC National Board, part of a group in charge of sweeping the
he proposed a plan to the Executive Director of the time, nearby harbor for mines and elements of
the bomb.
Ike Casey, to provide scholarships and grants to up-and-
coming electricians in the field. As the war came to a close, Bill spent any
free time onboard further learning about
switchboards and electrical currents. He
studied code books and dreamed of ways
The presentation was well received and High School of Miami, debuted, where to apply his Navy electrical training back
moved quickly from ideation to action. Not students could spend half of each school stateside. Crawford returned to Miami at
long after board endorsement, Crawford day learning a trade. Bill was eager to age 20. While reminiscing on his time in
and his co-founder received Internal join to learn the electrical trade, but the the Navy, Bill reflected, “I was exposed to
Revenue Service (IRS) approval for the school required a fee, which, at the time, a lot of things most people don’t have to
launch of the foundation. The Independent his family could not afford. A group of be and I try not to dwell on the negative.
Electrical Contractors Foundation was local electrical contractors stepped up to I dwell on the positive parts of life.” Once
now a realized dream for Crawford to help Bill by paying his fee and providing home, he picked up his civilian life and
help those electricians following in his him with the tools needed to get started went to work at a local union shop. He
footsteps in the industry. at the school. “I had all this curiosity was part of a team that wired a lot of new
about [electricity] and now things were construction homes across the country,
Bill Crawford’s desire to help others beginning to be explained to me and I where he gained a lot of new experience
began long before he founded the IECF. was seeing it happen,” Bill recalls, still in the trade, becoming foreman with the
He was born in 1928 in Miami, FL where in fascination. “I was taught [the trade] union ship. While working, he studied for
his family lived humbly and worked hard. so that I could be a part of constructing and passed the Journeyman Exam. He
From a young age, Bill was fascinated these things in the future.” For the first soon met and married his love Barbara in
with how the lights in his own home were half of the day, Bill learned everything 1952 and they settled together in Miami.
wired to turn the light bulbs on and off. from wiring to codes, to electrical In 1960, Bill passed the state contractor
He was determined to figure out how theory, to terminology and circuits. exam and became a certified electrical
it all worked. Just as Bill was to start contractor. “In the back of my mind while
high school in 1942, a new vocational In 1944, Bill chose to serve in World War II at sea, I would lay on my cot on deck and
high school program, the Technical and he left for service at the age of 17 as draw and script out ‘Crawford Electric.’”

68 Insights Magazine | November/December 2021 | www.ieci.org