“Jack absolutely loved Kenmore and its people,” Char Crawford said of her late husband, one of Kenmore’s founders and its first mayor. “This city was just so important to him.”

The city Jack Crawford helped create is formally honoring him with “Jack Crawford ‘Courtesy is Contagious in Kenmore’ Day,” which will occur annually Oct. 24.

To mark the first Jack Crawford Day, officials planted a Japanese Stewartia tree in Crawford’s honor at 10 a.m. Oct. 24 in Log Boom Park.

Jack Crawford made a slogan of the phrase, “Courtesy is contagious in Kenmore,” creating banners that were displayed around the city.

“A lot of people thought that was corny, but that was Jack,” said Tom Traeger, a local historian and friend of Crawford’s.

Traeger made his comments when Crawford died at age 80 Dec. 27 of last year.

Char Crawford said her husband would have loved the idea of having a tree planted in his honor. She said he was thoroughly pleased and honored when the city previously named the Kenmore skate park after him.

“It was so sweet of them to do this,” Char Crawford said of naming a day after her husband. “I can see him up in heaven smiling,” she added.

Mayor David Baker said Crawford took him and other current local leaders under his wing when they first gained public office.

“This community really owes a lot to Jack Crawford,” Baker added.

Baker and others said the city plans on handing out copies of Crawford’s booklet, “A History of Kenmore for Kids,” to local students.

Besides that book directly aimed at younger readers, Crawford also had a hand in creating, “Kenmore by the Lake: A Community History,” a more full-fledged story of the city presented by the Kenmore Heritage Society, of which Crawford was president at the time of his death.

Involved with the Kenmore community from even before its official beginnings, Crawford was elected to Kenmore City Council in a special election held in April 1998 prior to the city even being formally incorporated, according to “A Community History.”

After his initial election to council, that council then selected Crawford as the city’s first mayor, a position he held until 2000. And although he did not continue as mayor, Crawford was re-elected to council for a four-year term in 2002.

“We were a city blessed with a harmonious council, a professional staff and, even more important, a community of citizens who cared about their new city,” Crawford is quoted as saying in the pages of “A Community History.”

Born in Anthony, Kansas, in 1928, Crawford was a 21-year Navy veteran, a military chaplain who served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He and Char Crawford moved to the Kenmore area in 1969.

Why was the city so important to him?

Char Crawford said her husband loved the family lifestyle of Kenmore, including the lakes, the parks and the trees. He eventually decided he just had to give back to the community and that was the reason he initially ran for City Council.

Char Crawford said she believes her husband would like the condition the city currently finds itself in.

“Kenmore just seems to be bursting with energy right now,” she said.