Richard Ellsworth Crable

Richard (Dick) Ellsworth Crable, Ph.D., of Sacramento, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends, on June 19, 2025. Although his passing was sudden and time with us too short, he will be long remembered for his well-honed sarcasm, as well as his remarkable capacity for generosity, ingenuity, creativity, and love.

Dick was born on March 14, 1947, in Circleville, OH, to Kermit and Mary (Grooms) Crable. He grew up with a close relationship to his older sister Donna (Crable) Harper, showing his love through the pranks he played on her. After graduating from Circleville High School in 1965, he attended first Otterbein College and then Bowling Green University, where he was active in both theatre and debate. After graduating with his B.A. in 1969, he taught middle school and simultaneously attended graduate school at The Ohio State University, receiving his M.A. in 1971, and then his Ph.D. in 1973.

After teaching one year at Drake University in Des Moines, Dick joined the faculty at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, where he earned tenure and promotion, ultimately achieving the rank of Professor. He authored/co-authored over thirty articles/chapters and five textbooks on argumentation, rhetoric, public relations, and communication. Some of Dick’s proudest achievements during his time as a Boilermaker were the countless Master’s and doctoral students he mentored, as well as his term as editor of Central States Speech Journal, when he oversaw its rebirth as Communication Studies. He left Purdue in 1990, when he was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Sacramento State University.

Dick retired from the professoriate in 2000 to pursue his passion for renovating and restoring Victorian buildings in Midtown Sacramento with his beloved wife, partner, and best friend, Jane (Frederic) Crable, DNP. In addition to this full-time “hobby,” Dick spent his post-retirement years hiking (especially in the Sierra Nevadas), traveling, and pondering how to “find another way” when faced with the endless intricacies and quirks of maintaining 100-plus-year-old buildings, as well as his pride and joy, the shipping containers-turned-cabin in the Sierras, dubbed “Pair-o-Docs.” In these efforts, he and Jane were assisted by many amazing and talented people, but none were more important to them, and critical to this work, than Carlos and Karen Duran, as well as Dael Franke.

Preceded in death by his parents, Dick is survived by his wife, Jane; two children: his son, R. Bryan Crable, Ph.D., and his wife, Billie Murray, Ph.D.; and his daughter, Audrey (Crable) Lorraine, and her husband, Dean Anthony; one grandson: Evan Murray; his mother-in-law, Susan Blacksher; his sister Donna, and her husband, Abe Harper; his sisters-in-law: Linda (Frederic) Anderson; and Diane Frederic, and her husband, Mark Sasway; and many, many friends (you know who you are).

Services will be private, but the family encourages those who love Dick to donate to the Sacramento SPCA or another local charity that supports animals, nature, or those in need.