Chasing Miracles, The Crowley Family Story - Part Three: The Family

• Culture Pop blog / "Extraordinary Measures" and my visit to the Crowley home | Click here

• The Crowley Family Story, Part One: The Diseases
  


• The Crowley Family Story, Part Two: Extraordinary Measures


• The Crowley Family Story, Part Three: The Family


• Brendan Fraser on playing the real John Crowley in 'Extraordinary Measures'

• Movie trailer / 'Extraordinary Measures' / Click here

John Crowley’s passion for entrepreneurship and sense of purpose comes from his upbringing. “My grandfather, John, who was first-generation, worked with his hands, spent 25 or 30 years working in a rubber factory in New Jersey, and my grandmother Catherine worked as a seamstress. She was actually quite sick, and they both died in their fifties. From there, we’re pretty much all cops on my other side. My dad, my dad’s older brother, my uncle Jim, my cousin Jim is still a cop in Baltimore, his daughter Laura married a cop in New York . . there are a lot of Irish cops in the family.

“My dad died when I was seven and, just like our kids being diagnosed, that wasn’t the right time, that’s not supposed to happen. But I think your happiness in life is largely dependent on how you deal with adversity.

“For me, experiences growing up certainly shaped me, and I think shaped my perspectives on life – what’s important, what to do and who to believe, the basics of right and wrong. It doesn’t mean you always do what’s right, but at least you have that sense that there’s something bigger than you. I have a sense of service and sacrifice, which was extra special to me too because my dad was a cop and a marine. You get that sense of service and patriotism and sacrifice that was ingrained without him ever saying it. And that’s true, I think, broadly, of people in the Irish community. Look at the names of the heroes who died on September 11th, the firefighters and the cops. There was a pretty outsized number of Irish names there, and that’s not by accident.”