Well-known Baptist minister dies

GAINESVILLE - A memorial service is scheduled Sunday for the retired longtime leader of the Gainesville-based Chattahoochee Baptist Association.

Rev. William Francis (Bill) Crowe, 87, of Gainesville died Wednesday following an extended illness.

Rev. Crowe entered the theology program at Mercer University in September 1940. He was ordained a Baptist miniter in November 1942.

In May 1957 he became Director of Missions for the Chattahoochee Baptist Association. Rev. Crowe retired from the Association in December 1983. From 1984 to 1987 he served in thirteen interim pastorates in Northeast Georgia. In 1998 he was named Associational Missionary Emeritus by the Chattahoochee Baptist Association.

The memorial service will be at 2:00 Sunday in the Chapel of First Baptist Church on Green Street.

A family member says Rev. Crowe and Dr. Sam Poole, a well-known Gainesville physician, who also died Wednesday, were friends and members of the same Sunday School class at the church.