ATF spokesman Criswell dies; NPC member 40+ years

Howard D. Criswell, Jr., an NPC member for more than 40 years, died Sept. 18 at the Asbury Methodist Village retirement community in Gaithersburg. He was 86.

Criswell, who had been a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, joined the Club in 1968 after coming to Washington following a stint as a speechwriter at the Kennedy Space Center during the years before the Apollo moon launch.

“He loved the Press Club,” said his son, Howard D. Criswell III. “He went to the lunches all the time; they were a high point for him. He knew most of the staff by name.”

Criswell was born in Fort Benning, Ga. to a military family and graduated from high school in Fayetteville, N.C. before joining the Army Air Force during World War II. He flew 28 bombing missions over Europe as an engineer gunner aboard B-17s.

He graduated from Duke University in 1950.

For 13 years, he was with the Associated Press in Charlotte before joining the Kennedy Space Center.

He came to Washington to work with the Senate Judiciary Committee and Sen. Thomas J. Dodd as a speechwriter. He launched a trade publication, Medical Devices Report, his son said.

He worked as a spokesman for ATF in the 1970s and early 1980s.

He is survived by his wife, Nell Bailey Criswell, four children, six grandchildren and a great grandchild.