White House Historical Association

Howell G. Crim

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"Howell G. Crim," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/792.
Position
Usher
Years in President's House
circa 1930 – 1957
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidencies
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Biography
Howell Gardner Crim was born on October 2, 1898, in Sharpsburg, Maryland.1 Crim served in the Navy during World War I and later worked for the Veterans’ Administration.2 Around 1930, he was assigned to work as an assistant usher in the Herbert Hoover White House.3 In 1938, following the departure of Chief Usher Raymond Muir, Crim was promoted to the role. He was chief usher during the Truman Renovation (1948-1952), managing the president’s household at its temporary location, Blair House.4 Crim had a knack for remembering names and faces and prided himself on never losing “so much as a demi-tasse spoon” while presiding over the house and its collection.5 When he retired in the spring of 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower threw a special luncheon at the White House in his honor.6 In his words: “I never came in the front door of the White House that I wasn’t awed by the place.”7 Crim died two years later on May 11, 1959; he is buried at Pohick Cemetery in Lorton, Virginia.8
  1. "Howell Gardner Crim,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22323184/howell-gardner-crim.
  2. “Howell Crim, County Native, White House Chief Usher, Dies,” The Morning Herald (Hagerstown, MD), May 13, 1959, pg. 4.
  3. Most sources do not give a specific year for Crim’s arrival at the White House, though most articles say that he worked there for 27 years before retiring in 1957. His obituary states that he “was summoned to the White House…when Hoover became president.” See Mary V. R. Thayer, “Retirement Won't Crimp Crim, Presidential Usher,” Washington Post, June 2, 1957, pg. F3. Another article states that he started there in 1931. See “White House Chief Usher Retires,” Evening Star, May 24, 1957, pg. A-5, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-05-24/ed-1/seq-5/.
  4. “Trumans Are Pleased on Moving Back Into Gleaming White House,” Evening Star, March 28, 1952, pg. A3, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1952-03-28/ed-1/seq-3/.
  5. “Howell G. Crim Dies; Served 4 Presidents,” Evening Star, May 11, 1959, pg. A-12, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-05-11/ed-1/seq-12/.
  6. “White House Chief Usher Retires,” Evening Star, May 24, 1957, pg. A-5, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-05-24/ed-1/seq-5/.
  7. Betty Beale, “He Won’t Tell on Presidents,” Evening Star, June 2, 1957, pg. D-2, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-06-02/ed-1/seq-78/.
  8. “Crim, Howell Gardner,” Evening Star, May 13, 1959, pg. F-6, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-05-13/ed-1/seq-86/.
Birthplace
Sharpsburg, Maryland, USA
Pohick Cemetery
Related Workers
Raymond D. Muir
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1930 – 1938
James B. West
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1941 – 1969
Frank W. Kelsey
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1933 – circa 1935
James Harris
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, circa 1944
Edward Mannix
Housekeeping and Laundry, circa 1940 – 1947
Ray M. Hare Jr.
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1949 – 1976
John W. Mays
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, Valets, Lady's Maids, and First Family Attendants, 1909 – 1953