‘Chris died doing what he loved’: Friends remember Twin Cities social justice advocate
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The night Christopher Crutchfield died, he had been popping popcorn for movie night at Ujamaa Place in St. Paul.
The community advocate and lawyer was passionate about the people and the work associated with the nonprofit, his childhood friend Andrea Jepsen said Thursday.
Crutchfield had been president and CEO of the organization for just over a year when he died Nov. 4. from an aortic dissection, Jepsen said. She sits on its board, thanks to an invitation from Crutchfield, and recounted how he loved the nonprofit’s mission to empower and support young black men facing systemic barriers.
“Chris viewed the work he did at Ujamaa as the absolute pinnacle of his career and the braiding together of everything he had ever learned and done,” she said. “He loved what he did at Ujamaa. He loved the men, and we were constantly dreaming up programs and opportunities.”
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One of those was Crutchfield’s movie night featuring Black-centric films.
Jepsen recounted how on that night, Crutchfield “said something to the effect of, ‘I just love Ujamaa Place,’ and he was coming in with the popcorn, and then he said, ‘I don’t feel well’ before collapsing.”
Jepsen was not present but spoke with witnesses to the incident who said some men nearby broke his fall and he was transported to the University of Minnesota Hospital.
“Chris died doing what he loved — not just being at Ujamaa, but getting ready to spend time with the men, getting ready to feed them,” she said.
Michael Belton, the interim president and CEO of Ujamaa Place, had a 20-year friendship with Crutchfield. He told All Things Considered host Tom Crann that his friend’s death “is a great loss.”
“Chris was one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met, and I think that a lot of people … missed how intelligent, how smart he was, because he was so personable, he was so funny and he had such a joie de vivre,” Belton said. People missed what he called “the very sharp intellect” Crutchfield possessed because of these attributes.
Crutchfield was one of three sons born to Dr. Charles E. Crutchfield and Dr. Susan Ellis Crutchfield. His mother died in March. She made history in 1963 as the first Black woman and the youngest student to graduate from the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Jepsen said she met Crutchfield in Miss Thompson’s third grade class at Groveland Elementary School in Minnetonka. She’s now an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and supervises clinical work at the Special Education Law Clinic.
“We happened to be both precocious and badly behaved. And that bought you a ticket to the precocious kids club,” she said. The students in Wings, as the club was called, stayed together for four years while attending school and performed critical-thinking exercises together, she said.
“That’s actually how we ended up becoming pretty close. And we just remained friends from there,” Jepsen said.
Crutchfield moved on to the Breck School in Golden Valley and then onto Morehouse College, where he majored in political science. He graduated in 1992, according to his LinkedIn profile. He later attended the University of Minnesota Law School until he graduated in 1999.
Crutchfield founded a small law firm called Capitol Heights Law Group and later Jepsen joined the firm.
“Both of us have always done social service type legal work, and we were just … sort of like social justice playmates,” she said. “So we’ve always just sort of dreamed up what we could accomplish together and with others to try to make our little corner of the world better to the degree that we could. So it was kind of central to our friendship.”
Belton said there are plenty of people in the community who would call Crutchfield a “best friend.”
“And so he leaves that legacy of friendship,” he said.
Before joining Ujamaa in 2023, Crutchfield was deputy director of community relations for Ramsey County Community Corrections.
At the nonprofit, Belton said he was adept at capturing the spirit of Ujamaa — the Swahili word for extended family.
“It is all about love. And to me, that is huge,” Belton said. “That is a huge legacy.”
Crutchfield is survived by his wife and five children. He is preceded in death by his mother and his brother, Dr. Charles E. Crutchfield III, who died in 2023.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the North End Event Center on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.