This “26-Year-Old” says She Is Only as Old as Her Stem Cells

By: Mark Nootbar

Service men and women around the globe know her work intimately, but very few know her name; even fewer know that her decision to start her own business was born as much out of frustration as it was out of an entrepreneurial spirit.

“I got tired of being laid off,” said Mary Crawford (ENGR ’12G), thinking back to the jobs she had in her twenties and thirties. “I was a single woman, living with my parents, so they thought I did not need the job even if I was better than the men on staff with families.”

Crawford’s path to that inflection point started a decade and a half earlier, in the 1980s, when she went into the construction industry right out of high school as an estimator for a contracting firm.

“That was before estimating was all done by computers,” Crawford said. “It was a lot of math, but I have never been afraid of math.”

Crawford has also never been afraid of putting in long hours. While employed full-time in her first job, she earned her associate’s degree. At some point—after being laid off one too many times—she realized she wanted a bachelor’s degree and earned one from La Roche University while still putting in 40 hours a week at her new position.

By 1993, Crawford had had enough of working for someone else, and she opened Crawford Consulting Services. She started with just one client—the firm she had been with when she decided to venture out on her own. Today, she has contracts on nearly every continent, mostly with the U.S. Department of Defense.

“Anywhere there is a DOD base, we probably touched it,” Crawford said with no small measure of pride. “I like running my own company; there are no boards to answer to, and that means we can react quickly to a client’s needs.”

About four years into leading her own firm, Crawford went to see her general practitioner. She wasn’t feeling right. It was as if she had a cold she could not shake. Her doctor chalked it up to working hard (which she was) and the stress of running her business (which there is). But neither she nor her family were satisfied with the diagnosis; even her hair felt different.

Following the advice of her sister, Crawford got an appointment with a different physician (ear, nose, and throat doctor Berrylin J. Ferguson) who ran a panel of blood tests. After the results came back, Crawford was pulled out of a business meeting to take a call from Dr. Ferguson who recommended that she get more tests.

Crawford’s family gathered around her and helped her find a new primary care physician who could see her right away. Dr. Joan Devine agreed to see her that day. 

“She told me to go directly to the hospital,” remembered Crawford. “She said she did not know what I had, but it was serious, and they needed to figure it out.”

Ever the responsible employer, Crawford put off checking into the hospital by a day so she could process payroll. The next day she was admitted into UPMC St. Margaret outside of Pittsburgh and stayed there for 30 days while doctors tried to determine what was wrong. It turned out to be a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Her oncologist suggested a new and unusual treatment for the 1990s—a stem cell transplant.

“I was a bit of a guinea pig,” Crawford said. “There were only a few doctors who did stem cell transplants in the city. We chose to go to Dr. Mounzer Agha.”

Crawford’s treatment meant another 30-day hospital stay.

“I’m 62 now, but I feel like I am only as old as my stem cells,” Crawford said. “I tell people I’m 26. That’s my new birth date.”

The reinvigorated Crawford was off and running again. She even decided to go back to school, this time earning her master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering in 2012.

“To remain competitive in the marketplace, I needed to go back and get my master’s degree. Proposals were increasingly asking for advanced qualifications,” Crawford said. “I am so thankful that I took the time to do it! It seems as if every large solicitation is now requesting this level of education.”

Along with her passion for her work and for learning, Crawford’s next biggest love is golf. She plays regularly and has been on courses around the world. Through golf, she was introduced to Dick (CBA ’58) and Mary Lou Durr. Like Crawford, Dick Durr is a cancer survivor. He told her about the Circle of Hope—the recognition society for those who give $10,000 or more annually to the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, of which the Durrs are charter members.

Crawford knew right away that she wanted to join the group.

“It makes me happy that I am part of an organization that is working on all kinds of research for the overall betterment of mankind,” Crawford said. “Cancer touches so many people’s lives that it is more the norm than the unusual.”

Crawford directs her annual giving to stem cell research under the direction of Dr. Agha. She also makes gifts to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Center and UPMC Vision Institute where her brother and sister are being treated. Currently, she is serving on the Eye & Ear Foundation board.

When she is not running her business, volunteering, or playing golf, Crawford tries to keep up on the latest research coming out of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the Eye & Ear Foundation. Knowing what is happening with her gift is important to Crawford.

“Find your niche and give to it. Every dollar makes a difference,” encourages Crawford. “Mine is small compared to many others, but when it is coupled with other gifts, the scientists can really do lifesaving research.”