Tom Day Crouch (born February 28, 1944)Tom D. Crouch CV
at the National Air and Space Museum - Smithsonian is an American aeronautics historian and

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

.Tom D. Crouch
at the SIA archives.

Biography

Life

Crouch was born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

and grew up just outside of Dayton in Crystal Lakes, between

Medway Medway is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of City of Roche ...

and New Carlisle. He is a graduate of Tecumseh High School, and was inducted into the school's Hall of Honor in 2002. Crouch attended

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

, where he received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in history in 1966. He also attended

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public university, public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest List of colleges and universities in Ohio, university in Ohi ...

and received a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in history there in 1968. He later earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in history from the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 1976. In 2001 the

Wright State University Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio, United States. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in ...

awarded him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.Tom D. Crouch bio
at www.sil.si.edu. On November 2, 1963, Crouch married Nancy Anne Gochenouer. They have three children.

Career

An employee of the

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, 1968–1974, Crouch planned the exhibits for the Neil Armstrong Museum,

Wapakoneta, Ohio Wapakoneta (, locally , commonly shortened to “Wapak”) is a city in Auglaize County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Auglaize River, the city is about north of Dayton and south of Toledo. The population was 9, ...

and the history exhibitions for the Ohio Historical Center. He accepted a curatorial position with the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in 1974, and prepared exhibitions for the opening of that building in 1976. He transferred to the National Museum of American History (NMAH) in 1983, where he remained until 1990, rising to the position of chairman, social and cultural history. He was involved in planning the "More Perfect Union: Japanese-Americans and the U.S. Constitution" exhibition. He was named chairman of the aeronautics department of the NASM in 1990, and in 1999 was named senior curator, aeronautics. Crouch was appointed by then-president William J. Clinton to chair the federal advisory board planning activities commemorating the first flight of

Orville and Wilbur Wright The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first succes ...

in 2003. He also participated in and worked to resolve the issues over the

Enola Gay The ''Enola Gay'' () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel (United States), Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the Atomi ...

bomber being displayed at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

. Crouch is the author of some fifteen books and many articles, primarily on topics related to the history of flight technology. He rededicated the

Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation, also known as Valhalla Memorial Rotunda and The Rotunda, is a shrine to aviation located at the former entrance to Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood and Burbank, California. The sh ...

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

, in May 1996. Crouch became a regular guest in the National Air and Space Museum's television show,

STEM in 30 Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Crown group#Stem groups, Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, ...

. He appeared in eight episodes from 2014-2018.

Bibliography

As author

* * * * * * * * * *

As editor

* *

Recognitions

Crouch was awarded a 1989

Christopher Award The Christopher Award (established 1949) is presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, films and television specials that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit". It is given by The Christophers, a Christian organizatio ...

for his book ''The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright''. In 2005 he won the AIAA Gardner-Lasser Literature Prize for the book ''Wings: A History of Aviation From Kites to the Space Age''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crouch, Tom D. 1944 births Living people Ohio University alumni Miami University alumni Ohio State University Graduate School alumni American curators 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Writers from Dayton, Ohio People from Clark County, Ohio Historians from Ohio 21st-century American male writers