Born in Grundy Center, Iowa, Crary attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, but did not graduate.

[1] He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California in 1929, and a Juris Doctor from the USC Gould School of Law in 1929.

Having joined the United States Army Reserve in 1931, he served in World War II from 1941 to 1946.

[2] Crary was nominated by President John F. Kennedy on July 31, 1962, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of California vacated by Judge Ernest Allen Tolin.

His service terminated on April 28, 1978, due to his death from cancer in Newport Beach.