F.R. ERSKINE CROSSLEY

1915 - 2017

CROSSLEY, F.R. ERSKINEFormer Yale professor Francis Rendel Erskine Crossley died quietly on February 4, 2017, surrounded by loved ones. He was 101. Erskine was born in 1915 into a well-to-do manufacturing family in Derby, England. His father died in the 1920 'flu epidemic, after being injured in World War I. His paternal grandfather, Francis William, a committed Christian, exerted a strong influence on the family. Erskine grew up feeling strongly his obligation to "give back" to society. Throughout his professional career, civic service, and personal life he always tried to make the world a better place. Erskine was educated at the prestigious Harrow School in England, where he was captain of the football team, and Cambridge University, where he rowed for the Clare College crew. In later life, when he felt a bit low, he would work out on the rowing machine which he said made him feel better. Devoted to nature and the outdoors, he remained active all his life, as an avid gardener and a volunteer for the Branford Land Trust, helping to maintain trails and beautify public spaces. After immigrating to the United States in 1938, Erskine lived in Detroit, where he met an Irish woman; Mary "May" Coyne, at church. They married in 1941, forming a team that would become well-known internationally. They moved to West Haven in 1943, and then to Pine Orchard, where they lived for more than 50 years. They had two children. A year after May's death in 1998 he moved to Evergreen Woods in North Branford where he met Virginia "Ginny" Galpin. Their wedding caused a sensation; he was 85 and she just a few years younger. They enjoyed 15 years together until her death in 2014. Erskine taught mechanical engineering at Yale for 20 years. He also taught at Georgia Tech and the University of Massachusetts. During these years Erskine published an engineering textbook and founded an international engineering journal, "Journal of Mechanisms," which still exists today. He invited submissions from all over the world and allowed articles in foreign languages, May acted as chief correspondent and administrative assistant. With his technical skills and her social skills, they made a powerful team. Erskine was an internationalist, always maintaining strong ties to his family in England, and working to promote world peace. In the sixties, when he was teaching engineering at Yale, US relations with the Soviet Union had reached a low point. Erskine organized international engineering conferences, to which he invited Germans, Poles, Rumanians, Russians and others. He and May also travelled abroad numerous times, attending conferences. They also lived briefly in Manchester, England, and in Germany for a year on a Fulbright professorship. Erskine taught at the Technische Hochschule in Munich and Aachen, lecturing in German from cards he had written out in advance. They made many good friends over the years, and US also benefitted from better access to engineering advances in other countries. Erskine was also a founding member of the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science—IFToMM. Working with distinguished Soviet Academician Ivan Artobolevskii, who was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he helped create an organization that today has over 500 members worldwide. During his life in Pine Orchard he was involved at various times in garbage collection, zoning, the school board, politics, recycling, and after retirement from UMass, served as a staff scientist to the state legislature in Hartford. May complained that he never was home. His second wife, Ginny, turned tables on him; she was an enthusiastic traveler. Together—both in their eighties—they visited Angkor Wat and family in England and Kyrgyzstan. Eventually he was the one complaining, "Can't we ever stay home?" Erskine is survived by his children, Phyllis Mervine of Ukiah, California; Michael Crossley of Guilford, Connecticut; 10 grandchildren: Krista Robinson, Michael Maynard, Noah, Eli and Heather Mervine, all of California; Helena Azzollini, Southbury; Alick Crossley, Brooklyn; Michael A. Crossley, Manchester, CT; James and Emily Crossley, Guilford; and nine great-grandchildren: Luke and Amelia Robinson, Tehlias Sadlier-Mervine, Carson, Kaylee and Kaci Maynard, Wesley and Evelyn Hernandez, all of California; and Scarlett Azzollini, Southbury. He is also survived by his brother, Christopher Gregory, of Kendal, England, and numerous nieces and nephews in England. A more detailed account of Erskine's professional life may be found here. Click here for a story published on his 100th birthday.A funeral service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church, on-the-green, Branford, CT, at 1:00 pm on Friday February 10, 2017. A reception will follow the service. In lieu of flowers, donations to Connecticut Hospice, 100 Double Beach Road, Branford, CT 06405, are suggested. For directions and online memorial see www.wsclancy.com.