Jefferson Crowther was born Aug. 30, 1945, weeks after the end of World War II.

He grew up in White Plains, the son of Florence and Bosley Crowther. His father was film critic for The New York Times from 1940 to 1967. His mother was influential in creating Ridgeway Elementary School in the growing suburb.

Crowther graduated from The George School, a Quaker prep school in Pennsylvania, and earned a business degree from New York University. He served in the U.S. Navy, and was later a member of American Legion Post 310 in Nyack.

He went into banking in Manhattan, where he worked for Chemical Bank, Bank of New York, US Trust and, finally, Sterling National. He retired July 31, 2018. He had been in struggling health for years, his wife said, from metastatic prostate cancer.

The couple, who met on a blind date on Sept. 11, 1968 — an anniversary that would come to mean something very different 33 years later — married on May 1, 1971. They first lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, where he became a Manhattan banker and she was a research assistant at Rockefeller University. They would eventually move to Chappaqua, Pomona and then to Upper Nyack.

Crowther joined Upper Nyack's Empire Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 in November 1985. He would serve as the company's treasurer and chaplain.

"He was the tillerman on the truck," his wife said, of the firefighter who steers the back of the long ladder truck. "It was a huge responsibility."

He had grown up around tillermen of a different sort, sailing the Long Island Sound and off Martha's Vineyard, where his family spent summers.

"He wanted to be buried in his Empire Hook and Ladder uniform," his wife said. "And his his grandson, Beckett Jefferson Fagan, who is named for him, made a little friendship bracelet for his grandfather. He wore it till the moment he died."

A wake will be held from 4-8 p.m.Monday, Feb. 18, at Hannemann Funeral Home, 88 S. Broadway, Nyack. Empire Hook & Ladder will hold a firematic service at 7 p.m. at the funeral home. A memorial service takes place at 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 22, at Grace Episcopal Church, 130 First Ave., Nyack.

The family is asking for donations in Jefferson Crowther's memory be made to the Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust, P.O. Box 780, Nyack, NY 10960.