Peru RPCV Thomas F. Crosby Jr. dies at 63
Judge who overturned Southern California city's anti-homeless ordinance dead at 63
The Associated Press
Last Updated 5:44 a.m. PST Sunday, February 1, 2004
TUSTIN, Calif. (AP) - Thomas F. Crosby Jr., a retired Orange County judge probably best known for a 1994 ruling overturning an anti-camping ordinance that was credited with driving scores of homeless people out of Santa Ana, has died at age 63.
The retired appellate court judge died Jan. 23, apparently of a heart attack, at his Tustin home.
Among the opinions he was most proud of, Crosby once said, were his anti-camping ruling and another opinion issued that same year prohibiting the Boy Scouts from expelling an atheist. Both rulings were overturned by the state Supreme Court.
He "was a totally fearless, curmudgeonly iconoclast who was very bright and who called cases as he saw them," said Bob Wolfe, a research attorney who worked with him. "He was utterly unafraid to take on sacred cows."
Born in Long Beach, Crosby was graduated from Stanford University and received his law degree from the University of California's Boalt Hall School of Law.
He worked for the Orange County district attorney's office and served on the National Labor Relations Board and with the Peace Corps in Peru before going into private practice in the early 1970s.
After a 13-month stint as a Superior Court judge he was promoted to the state appeals court by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 1982. He retired in 2001.
He is survived by his wife, Patty, and sons Scott, 34, and Brett, 30, both of San Diego.
