Real estate mogul and Woodrow Wilson High School grad Trammell Crow died in his sleep last night. The cause of death wasn’t officially announced, but I’m thinking that 94 years of larger-than-life living has something to do with it.
After the jump, our Woodrow expert, Kyle Rains, shares a few Crow stories.
Writes Rains:
There are apocryphal stories of Trammell Crow’s days at Woodrow:
• He was not one of the Lakewood or Swiss/Gaston/Live Oak rich kids. He lived in an upstairs duplex with his many siblings and started out very poor in the Depression. It seems to me that many of our more successful alums started from meager economic means.
• He used to hop on the trains going down the Santa Fe tracks next to Woodrow.
• I’m not sure if anyone ever called him "Fred," but that name is put before Trammell in his football team group picture.
Supposedly, Mr. Crow was dating a girl who lived in the house with the big columns on Victor near Paulus. Original and longtime (1928 until 1956) principal G. L. "Pop" Ashburn paid her parents a visit and advised them that the young man would never make it the world and that they should stop her from dating him.
• One story I can confirm is that I seated Mr. Crow while volunteering at the 1984 Republican Convention in Dallas. I said to him, "I went to the same schools as you did, Woodrow and SMU". As he sat down, Mr. Crow said with conviction, "There are none finer!"
