Frank Crittenden is a man dedicated to helping his community by making beautiful birdhouses at his home in Hayes and donating them to the DAV Thrift Store.
Crittenden has been doing woodwork for most of his life. He graduated from Middlesex High School in 1951 and he worked for the Newport News Shipyard for about nine months as a woodworker in what was called a pattern shop. Not too long after that, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and served four years in the Korean War.
“I was on a Coast Guard ship out in the Pacific,” said Crittenden. “I got to travel a lot.”
After he left the service, he resided in Mathews for 60 years. During that time, he went to college on the GI Bill in 1957 at what was called the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary, which is now Old Dominion University. He graduated from business school in 1960.
Crittenden worked for a Gravely Tractor Dealership in Norfolk part-time for four years, working there while he was in college. Afterwards, he started tea...