Plaque honoring organ donor from Marion unveiled in Cedar Rapids driver’s license station

Marion native Joel Crawford saved hundreds of lives through organ donation after he died in an ATV accident in 2015, when he was 26. On Wednesday, a plaque honoring his sacrifice was unveiled in the Cedar Rapids Driver’s License Service Center — one of many similar plaques being placed across the state.

Joel Crawford grew up in Marion and graduated from Linn-Mar High School in 2007. He studied at Iowa State University, and later moved to Denver, Colo., where he continued his education and became a teacher.

According to Joel’s dad, Bob Crawford, who spoke before the unveiling, Joel went above and beyond for his students. He would stay after school without additional pay to help students, and started attending basketball games when a student complained that not many people came to support the team.

“He was a listener,” Bob Crawford said. “He was comfortable having quiet times. He listened to others and then he responded.”

Although it’s been eight years since the accident, Bob said the family still misses Joel and celebrates him regularly. They are honored to see the impact that he had in life and in death.

After the accident when Joel was in the hospital, it became clear he wasn’t going to recover. Bob and his wife, Ruth Crawford, said they were worried about making the decision whether to donate Joel’s organs, but were relieved when a nurse informed them he’d registered as an organ donor on his driver’s license.

“What means the most is that Joel did this on his own. He just did it,” Bob said.

“It just didn’t surprise me at all,” Ruth added, stating that being an organ donor fit 100 percent with Joel’s personality and desire to help others. “It’s just who he was, from a little guy all the way up to 26.”

Friends and family of the Crawfords came to the driver’s license service center on Wednesday to show their support as the plaque was unveiled. The plaque is the 15th of these plaques — which feature stories of deceased donors, living donors, or organ recipients from the surrounding community — in an Iowa driver’s license service center.

The first plaque was installed in 2020 in Waukee, Iowa, and honored Drew Lienemann, who died by suicide in 2016 and donated organs and tissue to almost 200 people. The Waukee service center was being renovated in 2020, and the staff there wanted to honor Lienemann and came up with the idea for the tribute plaque, according to Heather Butterfield, the director of strategic communications for the Iowa Donor Network.

The idea for the plaques has since been replicated in Utah, and other states are looking at creating similar programs, Butterfield said. Iowa plans to have a plaque in every state-run driver’s license service center by the end of this year, and then plaques will start being placed in county-run service centers.

Butterfield said she hopes the stories featured will inspire people visiting the driver’s license service center to mark “yes” to becoming organ, eye and tissue donors on their driver’s license, just like Joel Crawford did.

“For us, to have people remember Joel is all we want,” Bob Crawford said.

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