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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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CROCKER, ROWLAND WALDO (1882-1968)

CROCKER, ROWLAND WALDO, businessman; mayor of Newcastle, 1933-35; b. Newcastle, 23 May 1882, s/o Timothy W. Crocker and Mary Isabel Betts; brother of Bessie Camilla Parker Crocker; m. 1909, Rita Mary Sinclair Elliott, d/o Walter John Elliott and Mary Vaughan, of Newcastle; d. there, 20 Sep 1968.

R. Waldo Crocker was educated locally and at the Saint John Business College and became both a licensed river pilot and a land surveyor. He announced his availability to do surveying work in 1911 but soon entered his father's business, of which he later became head. In 1930, in partnership with Archibald H. Cole, he opened a men's wear store in Newcastle. Cole withdrew from partnership in 1933, but the business, which was one of the most reputable in the town, was continued by Crocker and his successors until 1978.

Crocker served for two years as mayor of Newcastle and played a role in Liberal party politics. He was a longtime chairman of the school board and president of the Miramichi Hospital Board for three years. He also served terms as president of the Newcastle Board of Trade, the Miramichi Cemetery Co., the New Brunswick Tuberculosis Association, the local chapter of the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Newcastle Curling Club, and the Miramichi Golf and Country Club. He presided over the Highland Society as well and was worshipful master of Northumberland Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. He was "an ardent and skilled curler"; indeed, he was "one of the best curlers on the North Shore."

Crocker was predeceased by his wife, Rita M. S. Elliott, and survived by two daughters and two sons. His son H. Graham Crocker was his successor in business and a prominent provincial politician, being minister of lands and mines in the government of Premier Louis J. Robichaud, and later chairman of the New Brunswick Electric Power Commission.

Sources

[b] official records [m] Advocate 22 Sep 1909 [d] Leader 26 Sep 1968 / Advocate 16 Apr 1930; Commercial World 17 Dec 1959; Gill; Graves (re. H. Graham Crocker); Hist. Highland Soc.; Leader 27 Jan 1911, 26 Jun 1974, 24 Aug 1977, 1 Nov 1978; News 14 Nov 1984


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