Reinhardt Leroy Crawford was born in Washington in 1915. He came to Anchorage in 1919 with his parents on the S.S. Northwestern, which anchored in the Inlet near Anchorage. Because there were no docking facilities, the passengers were ferried to shore aboard smaller boats. He grew up in Anchorage and attended local schools. Later he became a fur trapper near McGrath. He married Hettie Hultberg Conrad and they had three children. The family moved from McGrath to Anchorage, Fairbanks, and eventually Seldovia in about 1948. Leroy worked on fishing tenders boats and later had his own mechanical shop. He died in Seward in 1973 and is buried there near his parents.