In 1956 he was elected President of Key Club International, a high school community service organization of 65,000 members and in that capacity traveled extensively, including a trip with Radio Free Europe to European capitals for meetings with senior officials of West Germany, Berlin, Paris and London.

Additionally, he encouraged the development of tools to enhance analytic efficiency and effectiveness, such as high-performance networks, automated textual analysis and language support systems, and artificial intelligence techniques.

Mr. Crowell played a key role in establishing the Regional Centers, which were instrumental in enabling the NSA to expand and develop its military workforce with expertise in all areas of cryptology.

He fostered broad reexamination of core business processes, resulting in dramatic changes in strategic direction designed to cope with the continuing and rapid changes in cryptography, communications and information technology.

He earned his way through college working for an engineering firm as a surveyor in the Atchafalaya Swamp, and a survey boat driver on the Mississippi River.

During his college years he did two week-long cross country hikes and fly fishing trips in the North Carolina mountains and streams, scuba diving in the Rainbow River in Florida, and was the chef for many of the fraternity offsite gatherings.

Because of his earlier days as President of Key Club International, he also served as freshman, sophomore and junior class leader at LSU and was often called upon to give speeches to local service organizations.

Eventually, the pressures of his job in the Intelligence Community took priority forcing Bill to give up these many passions and focus most of his time and energy on his national security interests.

Their 10 to 18 day tours carried them through extremes of climate and terrain, ranging from the 120+ degree deserts of Nevada and California to the snow-covered mountains of Montana, Canada and Oregon.

Of his approach to national security interests, he often said, “I like to kick the tires and experience what the people in the field are experiencing.” His “tire kicking” included aircraft carrier landings, at-sea transfers to submarines, visits to conflict zones, helicopter trips to very remote and sometimes ancient places, and most exciting of all: a six-hour flight in the U2 spy plane at altitudes above 70,000 feet with substantial time at the yoke.