Donald Sherwood Crocker

Donald Sherwood Crocker, born October 28, 1935, passed away on March 16, 2026 in Dallas, Texas.

A memorial service to celebration Don's life will be held at 10 am on Monday, March 23, at Acton Methodist Church, 3433 Fall Creek Hwy, Granbury, TX 76049.

Don was born in Johnson County, Texas, to a sharecropper. After losing his father at the age of five, Don was raised by his mother and his four older sisters. From an early age, he understood the value of hard work—picking cotton alongside his mother and milking cows each morning before school.

In high school, Don was a standout athlete, excelling in both football and basketball. His talent and dedication earned him induction into the Joshua High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington, the first in his family to go to college. While pursuing a degree in electrical engineering, a chance visit to a job fair changed the course of his life. After acing two “engineering” tests, he was hired on the spot by IBM and moved to IBM’s headquarters in upstate New York. While there, Don’s ingenuity and curiosity were on full display—teaching himself to snow ski on homemade skis in his driveway, building bunk beds for his roommates, and making a deliberate effort to broaden his horizons, including attending his first opera, Porgy and Bess.

After a few years, Texas called him home. While driving past an Air Force base and watching planes take off, Don decided he wanted to fly. He enlisted in the Navy, where he flew fighter planes and landed on aircraft carriers—a testament to his courage and determination.

Following his military service, Don settled in Dallas, earned his Masters’ degree, and began a long career with Texas Instruments. There, he built lifelong friendships and founded the North Dallas Ski Club with two other friends that also had ski boats. A gifted athlete, he was an accomplished water skier—forming the base of ski pyramids and still getting up on a slalom ski at age 70.

At a North Dallas Ski Club party, he met the love of his life, Linda Ann Collins. They married just three months later and went on to share 60 years together. They began their family in Dallas, welcoming two children, Scott and Caroline, before moving to Houston, where their third child, Michael, was born.

Don’s career led the family on many adventures—from Dallas to Houston, back to Dallas/Plano and then to Lubbock, where he ran the customer service and distribution centers for Texas Instruments. And, it was in Lubbock, that Don formed a tight-knit group of friends known as “the Shooters.” Then it was off to Hartford, Connecticut, where he worked for Coleco and played a key role in the distribution of Cabbage Patch Kids during the height of their holiday frenzy—the very first must have/can’t get Christmas present. Known for his generosity, he made sure his daughter Caroline’s entire soccer team received their own dolls—making her, in her words, “the most popular girl in town.”

Never one to shy away from a new opportunity, Don later moved his family to Ruston, Louisiana, to run a lumber business—Ruston Lumber and Supply. Don later decided to get back into the computer industry and moved the family to the San Francisco Bay Area where he worked for Convergent Technologies and later Unisys. His leadership eventually took him to Guadalajara, Mexico, where he ran a computer plant that made computers for Unisys. Affectionately known at the plant as “El Gringo Viejo,” (he had the letterhead to prove it!) Don’s integrity defined his leadership—most notably when, after being robbed at gunpoint of the company payroll, he orchestrated a covert effort to ensure that every employee was still paid.

His career continued to take him across the country—from Pennsylvania to Detroit—before ultimately bringing him back home to Texas. After retiring from corporate America, Don and Ann settled in Pecan Plantation in Granbury, where they spent 26 years building a close community of friends through Acton Methodist Church.

Retirement, however, did not slow him down. Don continued working in a variety of roles—at the Cresson Transportation Museum, providing “security” at a local wedding venue, working for the U.S. Census, and serving on the Board of Directors at Pecan Plantation.

Don loved his family and friends deeply. He also loved Willie Nelson, hunting, skiing—both on water and snow—tennis shoes, watches, and a good pour of Weller’s, not necessarily in that order. He was known for his work ethic, his sense of humor, his ingenuity, and his unwavering commitment to doing the right thing.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his four sisters.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Ann; his children, Scott, Caroline, and Michael; their spouses, Rhonda Crocker, Sheryl Hatfield, and Ginna Crocker and his grandchildren, Carlee, Holden, Grace, and Corbin.

Don will be remembered as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend—a man who lived fully, worked hard, and left a lasting impact on everyone who knew him.