Robert Crampton

Robert “Bob” John Crampton, 93, of Staples, WWII marine veteran, landed on his final shore June 7, 2016 at the Lakewood Health System Care Center, Staples. He had resided in rural Wadena County since 1942.

Internment with military honors will be held at Fort Snelling August 12,  2016 at 1:00 p.m. He will be reunited with his sweetheart of 66 years, Betty, who passed away in 2015.

Arrangements were with Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapel in Minneapolis and Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Bob was born on August 12, 1922 at the farm near Ivanhoe to Robert Sr. and Lucille (Johnston) Crampton. The family moved to Motley where he started school in 1928. He left school after the eighth grade to help support the family and the farm during the Depression. He worked on neighboring farms for two dollars a week or in exchange for goods. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s and worked in a camp near Walker. The camp’s staff were veterans and an old sergeant encouraged him to enlist. Bob took several courses in welding at the Staples Vocational School before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps after Pearl Harbor. Following basic training in Jacksonville, Fl. he was assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. where he repaired fighter planes. In 1944 he was assigned to Fleet Marine 4th Pacific and sent to the Solomon Island. In 1945, he was a member of the invasion force set to invade Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrendered. He was discharged in April, 1946, with the rank of Technical Sergeant. Bob was an expert rifleman. While in the marine corps he was offered a plane ride by Charles Lindberg as a way of going home on leave.

After his military service Bob returned to farm with his dad near Staples. He married Elizabeth “Betty” L. Gilmore in 1949. He continued farming and also worked as a heavy equipment operator on road construction projects in Minnesota, including the early freeway projects in the Twin Cities during the late 1950s. Bob worked as a welder on the Minuteman missile silos in North Dakota, a crane operator on the nuclear power plants in Monticello and Red Wing and an operator on the Alaskan Pipeline project above the Arctic Circle. He retired from the Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 in the 1990s, staying active on the farm well into his 80’s.

He is survived by one son, Mark (Adjoa) of Staples; two daughters, Renee Carter of Minnetonka and Sherrie (Brad) Beal of Minneapolis; nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife; parents; one son, Brian; son-in-law, David; one grandson, Mark, Jr.; one brother, Lyle and three sisters, Doris, Alice and Betty.

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