Among his more notable students were Mary Gaylord McClean, Mary Lou Gallegher, and Randi Stuart. Stuart owned a mare named Summer Melody, and under Crabtree's coaching the pair won Amateur Five-Gaited Champion of Champions titles in both 1976 and 1977. Gallegher and her horse Heathermoor's Lad O'Shea won Junior Exhibitor Five-Gaited World's Champion of Champions in 1977 and 1978. Crabtree was president of the United Professional Horsemens Association, a director and vice president of the American Saddlebred Horse Association, and director of both the American Saddlebred Registry and the Kentucky Saddlebred Owners and Breeders Association. Crabtree was inducted into both the Rock Creek Horse Show Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014. He was the first show horse trainer or breeder to be inducted into the latter Hall of Fame. The same year he won the five-gaited stake at the Rock Creek Horse Show with Epic Hero and was given a second C. J. Cronin Sportsmanship Award. Crabtree and his wife Nancy were married in 1960. They had three children; Casey, Ann, and Susan. Casey also became a horse trainer at Crabtree Stables. In addition to his work with horses, Crabtree was a fan of University of Kentucky's basketball team and was an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. Redd Crabtree died on January 19, 2015 of pancreatic cancer. He had only been diagnosed a short time before. He was 79 years old. His death was on the anniversary of six-time World's Grand Champion Wing Commander's death. Nancy Crabtree, Redd's wife, only outlived him by a short time and died in November of 2015. Following Redd Crabtree's death, the American Saddlebred Horse Association declared him their Member of the Day on August 24, 2015. It was the opening day of the World's Championship Horse Show, and ASHA asked attendees to wear red clothing to that night's show in Crabtree's memory.