Terry Lee Crum of Gloucester, formerly of Richmond/North Chesterfield and Highspire, Pennsylvania, passed away on Sept. 24, 2019 at the age of 72 after living with Corticobasal Degeneration, a rare neurological illness for the past nine years.
Terry was born in 1946 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Robert and Lillian (Penny) Freeman Crum who predeceased him.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Joyce Williams Crum; his two sons, the Rev. Robert J. Crum (Patty) of St. Augustine, Florida, and William L. Crum (Sara) of Richmond; his granddaughters, Allie and Anna Crum of St. Augustine; his sisters, Diane C. Buffington of Lewisberry, Pennsylvania and Cindy C. Kable (Ronald) of Highspire. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Nancy Sturm (Peter) of Gloucester, and brother-in-law, O.D. “Q” Williams Jr. (Pat) of Richmond.
After graduating from Steelton-Highspire High School, Terry received a full four-year football scholarship playing for his much-loved Spiders. He was named all Southern Conference and All State guard during his senior year, and graduated from the University of Richmond in 1968 with a B.S. degree in Math and Physics.
He was a veteran of Viet Nam serving as a Captain–Field Artillery. He continued his military service for another nine years as a Major with the Virginia Army National Guard.
After returning from Viet Nam, he continued his education and was awarded a Master’s degree in economics from VCU. He also completed course work for a master’s degree in computer science from VCU all while working a full-time job.
During his career, he worked for VEPCO; Garfinckel’s, Miller & Rhoads, Brooks Brothers; Carlton Industries; Wheat First Securities, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he worked as a senior management I.S. analyst responsible for design, development and implementation of complex medical research systems. He was hired to be Director of the VCU/VCCS Computer Center, and later named the Director of I.S. Systems and University Computer Operations at VCU.
As an athlete, Terry’s love was coaching his sons in football, baseball and basketball while they played for the Beulah and A.M. Davis Athletic Associations in Chesterfield. Terry coached hundreds of boys and girls over the years trying to instill in them athletic skills as well as good sportsmanship.
In 1987 his career turned to law where he became the Director of Computing and Telecommunications at Hunton & Williams in Richmond. Law firms in Nashville, Tennessee, Chicago, and Cleveland later hired Terry as their CIO to transform their global IT function and standardize core system messaging and practice content management repositories. Terry was a frequent speaker at Legal IT Forums on the subjects of Knowledge Management, Global Networks, Global Financial Deployments, IT Organizational Strategies and other topics.
He retired from Deloitte Financial Advisory Services (New York) as a director in the Analytic & Forensic Technology practice focusing on the Legal Business Consulting Group in 2008.
Terry was a longtime member of Branch’s Baptist Church in Richmond where he served on the Deacon Board, taught a men’s Bible class, and sang in the choir.
Services were held on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at 10 a.m. in the Chapel at Westhampton Memorial Park, 10000 Patterson Avenue, Richmond.
The family is so very grateful to the staff at Riverside Convalescent Center for their kindness, compassion and professionalism in caring for Terry during his last days.
It is the family’s wish that instead of flowers, donations in Terry’s memory may be made to the Gloucester Volunteer Fire & Rescue, P.O. Box 1417, Gloucester, Va. 23061 or The Spider Athletic Scholarship Fund, 28 Westhampton Way, University of Richmond, Va. 23173.
Andrews Funeral Home & Crematory, Gloucester, was in charge of arrangements.