April 18, 2008
by Joan Lang
Crys grew up on Long Island. His junior year at Harvard was interrupted by the war, and he enlisted in the Air Corps.
After the war he finished college, managing to pay for it by the money he had made teaching other Air Corps kids how to play bridge. Then he went into the construction business.
I met him at a New Year’s Eve party. Growing up, I spent summers in Bedford, the school year in Manhattan. I was still in school at Syracuse when I met Crys in 1947. We got married two years later. First we lived in Manhattan, then in Larchmont when Crys started to build up here.
We moved to New Castle in 1958, into one of the many houses Crys built in Chappaqua between 1953 and1958. He built houses all over Chappaqua, on Paulding, Meadow Lane, Hardscrabble, Laurel Lane, including our own house on Algonquin.
Once we got used to living here, Crys joined a men’s group called The Town Club, a group of men who got together and did what the League of Women Voters do now: they talked about town government and the budget. The men ran the town with the League and that led to Crys being appointed to the Planning Board, on which he served for nine years. I’ve been reminded of all this by people writing to me in sympathy and remembering where they met Crys.
Crys loved going to the Memorial Day Parade and only missed one, two years ago, because he was too sick to attend. Everyone remembers him because he wore his uniform whether it fit or not – although he did fit into it again the last year. On his uniform jacket are the ribbons and medals representing his 35 missions and a Distinguished Flying Cross. Unfortunately, we lost the hat and he couldn’t wear it last year.
After he retired he became involved with the seniors program downtown and that led to his becoming a “grandfather” to the second and third graders at Westorchard School, where he did math and reading with them one day a week. He loved the children and they loved him.
The whole town has been sympathetic. I’ve had the most beautiful letters from people and I’m going to thank every one of them.
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org