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Discovering the spy who loved her By Paul Fattig Gladys Crowley wasn�t prepared for the call she received from the National Reconnaissance Office. The Medford resident was invited to attend a Sept. 27 ceremony at the NRO headquarters near Washington, D.C., to honor distinguished former employees, including the late John J. Crowley. "I didn�t know anything like the National Reconnaissance Office even existed," she says. "It was kind of a surprise." Yet she knew it was the same John J. Crowley who had been her close friend and husband for nearly 50 years. He died of cancer in 1984. Her surprise vanished once she learned the NRO designs, builds and operates the nation�s spy satellites. The NRO is a member of the shadowy intelligence community under the auspices of the Central Intelligence Agency. She knew John had worked on the high-flying spycraft for the "Company." But Gladys, a bright, pleasant lady who turns 91 this month, is quick to observe that John wasn�t a secret agent man who led a life of danger. "No, that was on the other side of the �House,� " she says of CIA spies. "They called it the �House� or the �Company.� Of course, some of the men who worked under him had been in that part of the �House.� " In a short press release, the NRO notes that John Crowley was named chief of the CIA�s satellite reconnaissance programs in 1965. "He directed the successful development of imaging satellite programs and a crucial signals intelligence program and is credited with establishing a true partnership between the CIA and Defense Department elements of the NRO," it reads. His national reconnaissance career continued until 1975, it notes. During the ceremony, Gladys received a citation honoring her husband�s contributions from George Tenet, the current CIA director. A plaque citing John�s contributions also was unveiled in the NRO headquarters. Accompanying her was their son, John, a medical researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and daughter, Ruth Ann, an attorney and former college professor. While viewing exhibits on display at the NRO headquarters, the family learned more about the man they loved. "At one point, one of our children said, �Oh, so that�s why we moved that time,� " Gladys says. One of the hush-hush projects he perfected was called "Corona," which was declassified in 1995. Basically, it included a series of satellites orbiting 115 miles above the earth, primarily above China and what was then the Soviet Union. The exposed film was returned to earth via capsules ejected from the satellites. One spy photograph taken over Moscow in May of 1970 shows Lenin�s Tomb in the Red Square. "I didn�t know any of this until it was exhibited at the ceremony," Gladys says. But John Crowley was much more than a Company man. Before his career went into orbit, he helped develop sonar technology, the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line of radar stations in the Arctic, coordinated guided missile programs for the Defense Department and the shoulder-launched ground-to-air missile. In Crowley�s den are photographs of him with the likes of President Jimmy Carter and former CIA chief Richard Helms. But most of the photographs are of family, going back to before World War I when he was a young principal and science teacher in Tracy, Minn. That was also before he fell head over heels for Gladys, the sixth-grade teacher. They married in 1936. There is also a photograph of a beaming John holding a fly rod and a fish weighing about 12 pounds caught in the Rogue River. The family came to Medford in 1970. "The river is what brought us here," Gladys says. "He loved fishing that river." John Crowley worked as a consultant for the intelligence community until he was diagnosed with cancer. In John�s final days, former CIA director John McCone paid his respects during a stealth visit to the Rogue Valley. But it wasn�t until the ceremony a couple weeks ago that his wife realized the full import of her husband�s work. "I knew sort of what he was doing but nothing specific," says Gladys, who adds, "Now I know a little more about my husband." You can reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.