Richard Dean Crowl

Born May 20, 1972 in Minot, North Dakota, Richard Dean Crowl was the son of Darrel and Linda (Norris) Crowl. Spending only a few years of his life in Minot, Rich's family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1975 once his dad was honorably discharged from the Air Force. The Crowl family settled in Bixby in 1977 where they soon became a party of five. They established their home and made many lasting memories. Rich attended Bixby Public Schools from Kindergarten to graduation. Most of his childhood, Rich played soccer for the Bixby Soccer Club, followed by the high school soccer team, and Blitz United competitive club. Rich also enjoyed skateboarding where he and his friends, Brian and Drake, got to know many of the security guards in the downtown Tulsa parking garages. In Rich's junior year of high school, his dad introduced him to racing mini-sprint race cars as an incentive to improve his grades. It worked and Rich graduated in 1991. Upon graduation, he used his high school vo-tech drafting training for a few years and quickly felt the responsibility of parenthood and providing for his children. He always said his daughter, Shelly, is what saved his life: knowing that he had to be res...[more]

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sible for a small life that couldn't defend herself and when Dustin came along, that made the father's instinct even stronger. After several years of drafting, he had a field job come up and he learned he enjoyed working in the field. He came to his dad and explained how he wanted to get out of the office and make a better living. It was decided that he would go back to technical school for refrigeration and air conditioning service training and work with his dad at Crowl Mechanical. In his training school, he often helped his instructor and classmates by talking about his daily work experiences. His instructor felt like Rich was a tremendous asset to the class. Rich worked for Crowl Mechanical for over 20 years, quickly rising through the ranks from grunt work to construction manager. Rich soon mastered all types and sizes of refrigeration equipment and installed hundreds of refrigeration systems from Dodge City, Kansas to Little Rock, Arkansas. While on out-of-town jobs, Rich almost always came home with a new place to hunt or fish. Rich had great communication and customer service skills and his dad was always getting calls from customers saying how much they liked him and felt like they could trust him. One of Rich's favorite customers was Livesay Orchard in Porter, Oklahoma, where he could go fishing in one of their many ponds after a hard day of work. Even though he spent most days around his dad, he was very much a momma's boy. He knew he could share anything with her and ask her for judgement free advice. Always up for an adventure, Rich had a good time with everything he did. As an adult, he continued racing mini-sprint cars side by side with his dad, spending numerous weekends at the dirt track until a wreck sent him flipping sideways into a concrete wall, breaking his arm, and nearly ending his life. His racing career was over after that, but didn't stop him from racing just about anything with wheels. He raced everything, including mowers, forklifts, four-wheelers, and hot rod cars! When not racing, Rich was either watching NASCAR, riding his motorcycle, helping friends, fishing or hunting. He said he was first hooked on fishing by his Great-Grandma Butterfield, who took him fishing for perch in the pond on the neighboring farm. He had great a passion for hunting and fishing and he loved sharing this passion with his friends and family. He often expressed the desire to instill that passion in his grandkids, he was just waiting for them to get a little older. Recently, Rich fulfilled a life-long dream and bought 30 acres near Keystone Lake with a house, pond, and his own woods for hunting. He was quite happy with his little piece of heaven on earth and was proud of the work he and Lynn were putting into cleaning it up, providing food plots to attract deer, plans to enlarge the pond, and growing a garden of their own. Those he leaves behind are his Granny, Mary Gillum; parents, Darrel and Linda Crowl; children: Haley Fowler and her husband, Michael, Shelly Crowl and Dustin Crowl; seven grandchildren: Kyler, Jayson, Jack, Jupiter, Jazzlyn, Makena, and Freyja. Brother, Mike Crowl and his wife, Jody, and sister, Meralee Crowl; and nephews: Daniel, Tyler, and Braden. He is also survived by Lynn Fielden, with whom he was in a long lasting relationship, and her children, Doug and Leslie. Rich leaves behind a whole host of family, including aunts, uncles and cousins, who were always dear to him. This grandson, son, dad, pawpaw, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin and friend will be greatly missed by those he knew and loved. Everyone who got to know Rich counted him as a friend and he will leave a huge hole in the hearts and lives of those who loved him.