Louie Crew was born in the deep South in 1936. He received his B.A. degree from Baylor University, his M.A. degree in 1959 from Auburn and his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama in 1971. His dissertation was entitled "Dickens' Use of Language for Protest." In his career Crew has taught in England, Hong Kong, and China, as well as at colleges in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Chicago in this country. He became Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University in 1989 and retired from that position in 2002.

In 1974, Louie Crew founded the national organization for gay and lesbian Episcopalians known as Integrity. He served as editor of Integrity's newsletter from 1974 to 1977. He also co-founded the lesbigay caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English in 1975. He served on the board of directors of the National Gay Task Force (now National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) from 1976 to 1978. He also served on the Wisconsin Governor's Council on Lesbian and Gay Issues in 1983.

Crew's publishing activity is voluminous, with over 1,400 publications to his credit - from article to essays, from poetry to full length books. He has been on the editorial board of the "Journal of Homosexuality" since 1978 (except for 1984 to 1988). He edited A Book of Revelations: Lesbian and Gay Episcopalians Tell Their Own Stories, a collection of 52 biographies, in 1991. His most recent publication is 101 Reasons to Be Episcopalian.

Dr. Crew has been a member of Grace Church in Newark, New Jersey, since 1989 and has served as a member of the vestry, a deputy to diocesan convention and as a member of the rector search committee, and a member of the Task Force on Episcopal Identity. The Diocese of Newark elected him on four occasions as a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. The General Convention, in turn, elected Crew to serve on its 38-member Executive Council from 2000-2006.

Louie Crew was recognized nationally by having a scholarship bearing his name established at Episcopal Divinity School and that institution also conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree in 1999. He was the recipient of the Bishops Cross from the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, Diocese of Newark, in 2000.

Louie is living with his partner, Ernest Clay, in a relationship of love, mutuality and life commitment, celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2004.