Cecil Crabb

CECIL VAN METER CRABB, JR., Ph.D Cecil Van Meter Crabb, Ph.D., 78, retired professor of political science at Louisiana State University, died Tuesday, May 6, 2003, at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Funeral services will be conducted at 10:00 A.M., Saturday at Zion Presbyterian Church with Rev. Don Wahlman officiating. Burial will be in Zion Cemetery with military honors provided by Herbert Griffin American Legion Post 19. The family will visit with friends in the church parlor following the service. Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Notes of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.oakesandnichols.com. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society. The Clarksdale, Mississippi native was the son of the late Cecil Van Meter Crabb, Sr. and Mary Dupree Crabb. He received his B.A. from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in 1947 and M.A. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University in 1948. He received a Cordell Hull Fellowship to Johns Hopkins University where he earned his Ph.D in political science/international relations with specialization on formulation of foreign policy in 1952. He was a recognized professor, author and lecturer; published numerous articles and twenty-six books on subjects including doctrines in foreign policy, nonalignment in Middle Eastern affairs, national security, and was initial investigator and first to publish on bipartisanship in foreign policy after Senator Arthur Vandenberg introduced the concept in the Senate at the end of World War II. He was professor of political science at Vassar College from 1952-1968. He was chair of the political science department at LSU from 1968-1978 and graduate advisor in the department. His honors included Centre College Alumni Phi Beta Kappa, ODK, and was voted most popular professor at LSU in 1990. He was a veteran of World War II and fought in the European theater. He was a longtime member of University Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge and served on the Board of Deacons and as an elder. He enjoyed gardening, extensive travel, woodcrafting and music. Survivors include his wife of fifty-five years, Harriet Clotilda Frierson Crabb of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; one son, William Van Aldred (Elizabeth) Crabb, M.D., of Pensacola, Florida; one daughter, Cornelia Crabb (Mark) Otnes, Ph.D., of Urbana, Illinois; one sister, Susie M. Crabb of Memphis; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Pallbearers will be members of Herbert Griffin American Legion Post 19.