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"I accepted the offer in order to be near a University where I could work and complete my education at the same time. This turned out to be a hard assignment. My work in the FBI placed more demand on my time that I had expected. My language ability in the German phase of my employment became an interference factor; i.e. even though I was a clerk I had over-time demands upon me that prevented my attending class consistently at George Washington University."
"When 1939 rolled around, I had already figured in on of the Bureau's top spy cases. I was the Bureau's German translator; and as such I had to appear int he U.S. District Court in New York City and testify relative to some translations I had made. I had to spend a week in Little Rock in an investigation capacity, and I had to spend three months in New Orleans relative to German espionage there. And when World War II broke out with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I was compelled to discontinue school altogether. I became legally frozen in my work for the FBI and the war effort. Congress had assigned complete jurisdiction over the internal security of the nation to the FBI."
"At this juncture of my life, I was married and had one child. During the three months that I spent in Safford just after returning from y church mission to Germany I fell in love with a beautiful girl by the name of Jewel Mae Jacobson. I had know her all my life, but only as a friend. During my three-year absence from home, she had developed like a rose. Time and nature does that to a person. Jewel was an accomplished pianist, which fact played an advertent role in our contrivance to see each other frequently. In church, I sang and I played my violin; and such things make an accompanist a necessary thing. As to whether she was aware of my ulterior motive is a moot question. Needless to say we both saw a definite affinity in each other; but circumstance and lack of money at that time prevented our doing anything about it. I hurried off to Washington D.C. to seek my fortune, and she went over to Tempe and matriculated at Arizona State Teachers College. But our love was kept alive, owing to good mail service and her willingness to wait. It was almost two years later that I was able to come home and marry Jewel in the Arizona Temple. We started our family of six children while we were in Washington D.C. One child was born in Chicago, and the other three were born in Santa Fe, New Mexico."
"But now I am getting ahead of my story. My tenure with the FBI under John Edgar Hoover extended from 1935 through the year 1974. It was during the year 1943, in July, that Mr. Hoover sent one of his associates to my office, located just down the corridor from his office, and advised me that I was at that moment a Special Agent of the FBI. This came as a surprise, because I still had a few academic hours to get out of the way before the University would grant me a degree. The Bureau acknowledged that I had been doing the work of a Special Agent for a long time and that I should have the title and the added compensation that goes with the title. Within three days, I had been transported to the FBI Academy located at the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia. It was here that I was put through three months of intensive training from nine o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night, seven days a week. My wife and 2 children remained in Washington D.C. pending my graduation."
"In October of that year, I was issued a set of credentials, and a badge, and a book of government rules and regulations. This, of course added a new dimension to my life, namely a career that I would never have anticipated. The dominating assignment that I carried throughout my FBI career was in the area of the internal security of the nation, namely in espionage, sabotage and civil rights matters. Although at first I harbored some reluctance to believe that I could be happy in law enforcement, time inured me to the work and its compensations. The very nature of my assignments seemed to take me into unknown and intriguing places. Not all f my assignments were pleasant, but as a whole they were always challenging. Over the years, I witnessed humanity in distress and in moments of crisis and at the crossroads. I saw life in the raw, as it were."
"On one occasion I had to cut the rope holding a man that had been hanging by the neck for several days. I have had to rescue the corpus delicti from the coyotes in the northern reaches of New Mexico. I have had to assist a pathologist in the identification of a decompose body. I have had to search for foreign enemies in the bottom reaches of Portuguese ships that were ankle deep in cockroaches. On several occasions I have known the fear that besets one who sees a gun pointed at him by an adversary. I have had to associate with thieves, prostitutes, and vagabonds in the investigation of infractions of the Federal Law. I have had to practice the art of the thespian to preclude detection of my identity. I have had to chase enemy foreign agents across the United States at high speeds. I have had to protect some of the nation's most highly classified secrets. I have had to testify in the high tribunals of the nation in matters pertinent to my investigations. I have had to sort out and supervise investigations looking toward the rescue of kidnapped victims. Activities inimical to the interests of society on the federal level were targets of my investigative activity. But not all of my assignments meted out to me entailed the witnessing of humanity at the crossroads. Some of my work took me to strange cities, to many countrysides, to the mountains, and to people of various cultures. Prior to my retirement in December of 1974, a considerable amount of my work for the government was in the public relations phase. I spoke and taught at police schools. I traveled extensively in the capacity of a civil-rights and election-law expert. This placed me in touch with people in high places in government and business. During my FBI tenure, I was in Washington D.C. eight years, in Philadelphia on year, in Chicago three years, in Santa Fe nine years, and in Phoenix twenty-nine years. My boss, John Edgar Hoover, died in 1972. I retired two years later."
"Jewel and I returned to the land of our birth in October 1983. We raised six children, educated them, and then saw to their marriage. At this writing, we now have 36 grandchildren and 38 great grandchildren. They all represent the crowning achievement of our existence."
"Speaking now of my church assignments, they are as follows: In Santa Fe, I served as the Gospel Doctrine teacher of our small LDS coterie, and later as their Branch President. In Phoenix, I was called to be the Ward Scoutmaster, the High Priest Group Leader, a member of the Stake High Council, the Stake Genealogical Supervisor, the Ward Genealogy Advisor, and Sunday School teacher. In between these assignments, I was privileged to be the personal body-guard for President Spencer W. Kimball on two occasions incidental to his visit to Phoenix on church matters. Since my return to Thatcher, Arizona my assignments have been as High Priest Group Leader and as teacher for the High Priest Group in my Ward."
"I must acknowledge that I have grown spiritually by virtue of my church assignments. I have enjoyed my sojourn on earth thus far, and I feel that I have been blessed abundantly by my Heavenly Father as the challenges of life have come my way. And as I conclude this sketch of my life I am not oblivious of the good fortune I have had to be the husband, protector and partner of my wife, Jewel. She has been a gem in our sixty-one plus years of marriage."
-Clarence L. Crandall (1999)
-Clarence L. Crandall (1999)
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