Editor’s note: This is one of a continuing online series of profiles of the more than 12,000 Hoosiers who have died from COVID-19. The stories are from 12 Indiana newspapers, including The Republic, who collaborated to create the collection to highlight the tremendous loss that the pandemic has created. The series appears daily at therepublic.com.
Name: Jeffrey Crowe
Age: 57
Town: Evansville
Died: Oct. 26
For more than 20 years, Jeff Crowe was a devoted pastor to his flock at Cup Creek General Baptist Church in Velpen.
Even though he lived an hour away and had a side job at Evansville’s Caze Elementary School, he never hesitated to make a trip to the hospital, nursing home or wherever he was needed to counsel a church member in need.
“He was always traveling to make sure that the people at Cup Creek were taken care of and had the pastoral care that they needed,” his son Andrew Crowe said.
Crowe is remembered as a dedicated pastor who loved people.
“He thrived to help people,” said Rebecca Crowe, his wife of 21 years. “Within the church, you see all kinds of marriage problems, financial problems, problems at work or just something going that you would have going on in your own life. He thrived on helping those people.”
She said he also served as a mentor to men who felt called to church ministry.
“A few of them have their own churches now,” she said.
Church ministry runs in the family. Crowe’s own father was a pastor, and his son Andrew is a minister at RiverWind, a Baptist church in Newburgh.
“He taught us to love Jesus, and his dad taught him to love Jesus, and so I think we all would say we had separate callings to the ministry,” Andrew said, “but at the same time, I think when you see your parent model…how to have a relationship with God and how important that is in your life, I think it has a strong influence on you as a kid.”
Crowe was an attentive father and grandfather. Growing up, Andrew said his dad never missed a baseball game, wrestling match or band competition. He loved his 18 grandchildren, too. In fact, Andrew said the last time he saw his father was at one of his grandson’s baseball games.
His love of children also led him to work in the local school system. He was hired on at Caze four years ago as a behavioral specialist, where he worked alongside his own son Tim Crowe, who teaches fifth grade there.
“You could just tell it energized him,” Tim said. “He loved working with the kids. He loved just sitting down and talking with him and playing with him and building relationships with them.”
— By the Evansville Courier Press
