Contacts keep crashing. What are my options?
I found a 3rd party Contacts app that could read Android contacts and save them as a .vcf file.  The .vcf file could then later be imported into the default Contacts app once I get things sorted.  The app is called Contacts VCF

As for my crash problem, I went to Settings >> Applications >> Contact and force closed the Contacts app.  Then from the same screen I tapped "Disabled" and confirmed that data would be lost.  This reset the app to its initial state (before all the updates since I started using it).

I then went to the app's page in the Google Play Store and clicked Enable to turn the app back on, then Update to bring it current.

Now the app works again; I imported the .vcf file that I had exported in the first step above to restore my contacts.