William Perry Crowell (born November 26, 1940) is the former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency.
Early life.
Crowell was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1940. His family moved to Dallas, TX in 1952 where he
attended Woodrow Wilson High School. He was a member of the ROTC reaching the rank of Lt. Colonel,
was a member of the rifle team and led the Pershing Rifles performance group. In 1956 he was elected
President of Key Club International, a high school community service organization of 65,000 members
and in that capacity traveled extensively, including a trip with Radio Free Europe to European capitals
for meetings with senior officials of West Germany, Berlin, Paris and London. A native of Louisiana, Crowell currently resides in Leesburg, Virginia with his wife Judy. 
Professional career.
Early NSA career (1962 –1989).
Crowell entered on duty with the National Security Agency in July 1962. His first assignment was as a
recruiter for Masters and PhD graduates in Engineering, Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science at
leading universities. After serving in several capacities in HR, he accepted a division chief assignment overseas. Upon completing that assignment, he returned to headquarters as a special
assistant to the Director NSA in the Office of the Executive Director and served under two directors of the Agency in that capacity. During the remainder of his early career at NSA he served in a wide variety of assignments including Head of special projects for A Group (Operations Analysis); Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence (and acting Chief) for A Group; Chief of Staff for A2, Deputy Chief R&amp;D for military
systems; Assistant Deputy Director for Administration, Chief of the Science and Technology Organization; Chief of the Analysis Organization for the Soviet Union; and Deputy Director for Plans and Programs. In July 1989 he resigned from the National Security Agency.
Aerospace Industry (1989-1990).
Vice President at Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation (1989–1990)
In 1989 Crowell became Vice President and Director of Space Systems of Atlantic Aerospace
Electronics Corporation. Atlantic Aerospace worked in many areas of research and development,
including imagery processing techniques, signals processing, mathematics research, high-precision
radar, and low-observable technology. Mr. Crowell established a new business that drew upon the
technology strengths of the company to produce products for the Intelligence Community and
successfully positioned the company to perform satellite systems work for the Aerospace Corporation and the NRO.
Chief of Staff, NSA (1990–1991).
Crowell returned to the NSA in 1990 just days before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to become Chief of Staff of the Agency. As Chief of Staff, Mr. Crowell directed the daily activities of the office of the Director and Deputy Director of NSA, including the oversight of congressional relations and external customer relations. He represented the Director and Deputy Director in external activities, including public speeches, intelligence community boards, congressional testimony and oversight boards. In response to the challenges of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Mr. Crowell developed a number of
information systems, including networks, information displays, analyst support systems, and video-
conferencing systems that provided the Directorate with access to real time information and also were
used to improve analyst interaction and production.
Deputy Director for Operations, National Security Agency 1991-1994.
The National Security Operations Center is responsible for carrying out the Signals Intelligence mission of the National Security Agency (NSA). This involves operating collection facilities across the globe, processing the signals that are collected, and producing intelligence reports for high-level policy makers and military leaders.
During his tenure, Mr. Crowell implemented significant changes to the scope, cost, and efficiency of these operations. He closed down the majority of conventional collection sites, which had employed thousands of people, and replaced them with a new structure of remote collection systems located in three regional collection facilities. He also initiated the development of new collection systems that focused on modern telecommunications and information technologies, as well as the emerging global Internet.
Additionally, he encouraged the development of tools to enhance analytic efficiency and effectiveness, such as high-performance networks, automated textual analysis and language support systems, and artificial intelligence techniques. Mr. Crowell played a key role in establishing the Regional Centers, which were instrumental in enabling the NSA to expand and develop its military workforce with expertise in all areas of cryptology.
Deputy Director, National Security Agency February 1994 – September 1997.
President Clinton appointed Mr. Crowell as Deputy Director in February 1994, the senior civilian
position in the National Security Agency. In this position, he served as chief operating officer of the
Agency, guiding and directing the development of strategies and policy and serving as the principal
advisor to the Director. He represented the Agency before congressional committees, presidential
boards, and the public media. He fostered broad reexamination of core business processes, resulting in
dramatic changes in strategic direction designed to cope with the continuing and rapid changes in
cryptography, communications and information technology.
Crowell retired from the NSA in September 1997.
Personal Interests and Activities.
Crowell’s background is somewhat eclectic. During his early days in Louisiana he loved to fish and got to know the rivers and swamps of the bayou country with his grandfather and uncle. He earned his way
through college working for an engineering firm as a surveyor in the Atchafalaya Swamp, and a survey
boat driver on the Mississippi River. During his college years he did two week-long cross country hikes
and fly fishing trips in the North Carolina mountains and streams, scuba diving in the Rainbow River in
Florida, and was the chef for many of the fraternity offsite gatherings. Because of his earlier days as
President of Key Club International, he also served as freshman, sophomore and junior class leader at
LSU and was often called upon to give speeches to local service organizations.
After moving to the Washington DC area, his interests continued to broaden. Bill became a carpenter
and built much of the furniture in his home, an accomplished photographer who built his own
darkroom, and an artist who entered paintings, pottery and sculptures in a number of the local art
shows.
After training in the art of pottery under teachers from the famed Penland School of Craft, pottery
became a serious passion. Crowell opened his own studio where he taught glaze chemistry, wheel
thrown pottery on kick wheels he built, and raku firing in a wood-fired kiln he also crafted.
Eventually, the pressures of his job in the Intelligence Community took priority forcing Bill to give up these many passions and focus most of his time and energy on his national security interests.
Bill and his wife Judy turned to the great outdoors for recreation, buying their first touring motorcycles in the mid 70’s and spending their vacations touring the Eastern United States. They traveled together, each on their own motorcycle, to virtually every state east of the Mississippi River, staying in Park Lodges or Bed and Breakfasts, fly fishing the local rivers, and sampling the cuisine of all the best restaurants in each of the towns and cities they visited. After 45 years of exploring the country, COVID unfortunately made travel an unreasonable risk.
Bill and Judy had learned to ski in their early days together and managed to make that a passion as well, traveling to ski resorts in Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
After tackling the Austrian and Swiss Alps they decided to ski the slopes of Colorado at Aspen, Snowmass, and Steamboat Springs for the rest of their years of skiing.
After moving to California, the couple visited virtually every National Park /in the west as their travels took them to all eleven states/ west of the Rockies and to Canada. Their 10 to 18 day tours carried them through extremes of climate and terrain, ranging from the 120+ degree deserts of Nevada and California to the snow-covered mountains of Montana, Canada and Oregon. When they returned to the East Coast they continued their motorcycling adventures with more travels down the Blue Ridge Parkway
annually. 
Crowell’s adventuresome inclinations did not end with motorcycling or skiing. Of his approach to
national security interests, he often said, “I like to kick the tires and experience what the people in the field are experiencing.” His “tire kicking” included aircraft carrier landings, at-sea transfers to
submarines, visits to conflict zones, helicopter trips to very remote and sometimes ancient places, and
most exciting of all: a six-hour flight in the U2 spy plane at altitudes above 70,000 feet with substantial time at the yoke.
References.
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