Crumpacker honored for community, family legacy

Robert Charles Crumpacker was honored and remembered as a loving family figure with “endless wisdom and timeless advice,” and as a civic servant and skilled plumber who donated time and resources to sponsor youth baseball or fix a friend’s pipes for a fraction of what many charged.

More than 100 people celebrated the life of Bob or “Crummy” Crumpacker on Saturday at the North Beach Senior Center, while the Ocean Shores City Council and Mayor Crystal Dingler honored the two-time councilman with a bouquet of flowers where his seat sat vacant.

Crumpacker, 67, died in his Ocean Shores home on March 13, leaving what celebrants said was a legacy of warmth, caring and good humor. For many years, he was s fixture at the poker tables at the Quinault Beach Resort & Casino, and he was a longtime member of the Public Facilities District responsible for oversight of the Ocean Shores Convention Center.

His daughter Christine presided over the event at the Senior Center that was part potluck and part a family gathering involving the North Beach community at large.

She read a tribute from one of his former baseball players: “We lost a great man. A man that gave a lot more than I could have ever expected anyone to give. Bob was the sponsor of one of the greatest baseball teams I ever played on, not just because we won a lot but because we were like family.”

In addition to his career as a local plumber, owning Crummy Plumbing and RC Plumbing, Crumpacker also sold life insurance and owned a company called Midway Games that had pool tables and coin machines, Christine said. “He loved everyone,” she added. “Even if he really didn’t like you, he loved you.”

Former Ocean Shores councilman Gordon Broadbent said he had known Crumpacker for about 20 years after he first did the plumbing for a house he was moving into at the time. “The last time I ran for City Council, he was out there helping me put my signs up, and I was out there helping him put his signs up,” Broadbent said. “I am really going to miss Bob. I used to see him two or three times a week. … Everybody who knew Bob loved Bob.”

Jennifer Brouwer said Crumpacker put in the plumbing for her art studio. When he was finished, she recalled, “He knocked on the door and said, ‘Your Crummy plumbing is in.’ And then he left. So I went to the contractor I was working with and asked, ‘Is this going to be okay?’”

Karen Hogan said she met Crumpacker 16 years ago when she and her husband Dennis were building their house.Crumpacker looked at the plans, and then offered to give them a price for the plumbing. “My husband said, ‘Wow, I’ll take it.’ And we became friends.”

Marlene Penry noted how Crumpacker “loved this community and always tried to do what was best for this community.” She recalled how he always met people with a smile.

On Monday during the City Council meeting, Dingler said Crumpacker was a “reminder to all of us to live every day. Bob did live every day and make it the best he could. He was a man who really cared about this area and this town for all of us and this city.”