Senior center named for former Fayetteville councilman

What will become the Bill Crisp Senior Center is being built near Lake Rim, off Raeford Road. It's expected to be completed in April 2022.

Crisp, 80, served as the District 6 councilman for six two-year terms before stepping down in 2017.

Crisp spent 27 years in the Army, rising to the rank of command sergeant major. He said he told his wife that they would leave Fayetteville once he retired and never return.

"The longer I was away from here, the more I realized that this might just be one of the hidden jewels, and then we decided to come back to Fayetteville," he said Wednesday. "I'm glad we came back."

In 2005, his home was annexed into Fayetteville, so he decided to run for City Council and won. During his 12 years on the council, he became a mentor to many people.

"I told him as he left office," Councilwoman Kathy Keefe-Jensen said, "that God took away my father and gave me Bill Crisp. Bill Crisp is truly family to me. I think the world of the man. He is an American hero."