Buck Crump

Norris Roy ("Buck") Crump, CC (July 30, 1904 – December 26, 1989) was a Canadian businessman and President of the Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. He was primarily responsible for converting the railroad to diesel locomotives,[1] and expanded the company into non-transportation sectors.

Norris Roy ("Buck") Crump
Born(1904-07-30)July 30, 1904
Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada
DiedDecember 26, 1989(1989-12-26) (aged 85)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Known forPresident of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited
AwardsOrder of Canada

Early life and education

Crump was born in Revelstoke, British Columbia. His father was a railway superintendent.[2] Crump joined the CPR as an apprentice machinist in 1920, when he was sixteen years old.[3] In between working for the railway, he earned a bachelors and in 1936 a master's degree at Purdue University.[1]

Career

After working as a track labourer and then in the machine shop, Crump was transferred to Winnipeg, where he continued to work while completing high school at night. After time off to complete a university degree, he took a position as a night foreman. He was transferred to Montreal as an assistant to the vice president, and in 1943 became Superintendent of the Ontario district.[4] In 1948 Crump was a vice president at CPR; to counter lower numbers of passengers, he advocated increasing advertising and spending more money to make train travel attractive.[5]

Crump was elected President in 1955;[6] the company was severely in debt at the time.[7] At the time the company was mainly using diesel locomotives only in the railyards; during the following twelve years, Crump oversaw the dieselisation of the railroad. He ordered the purchase of new equipment to commence operation of a new trans-continental train The Canadian which began operation in April 1955.[8]

To improve profit margins Crump initiated a reorganization and expansion of the company's non-rail business.[7][9]

An admirer of Samuel de Champlain, founder of Quebec City and New France, it was Crump who proposed naming the company's Montreal hotel Château Champlain after him.[10]

In 1971 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada[11] and in 1974 Crump retired.[12]

Notes
  1. Tom Murray (7 March 2011). Rails Across Canada: The History of Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways. MBI Publishing Company. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-61060-139-9.
  2. David Twiston-Davies (25 July 1996). Canada from Afar: The Daily Telegraph Book of Canadian Obituaries. Dundurn. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-55488-116-1.
  3. Robert Chodos (1973). The CPR: A Century of Corporate Welfare. James Lorimer & Company. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-88862-047-7.
  4. "Retirement?" Canadian Rail, No. 252, November, 1972. p. 356.
  5. Nicholas Morant; John F. Garden (1991). Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific. Footprint Pub. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-9691621-3-1.
  6. "Takes Throttle at Canadian Pacific," New York Times. May 5, 1955.
  7. Max Foran (1 November 2013). Development Derailed: Calgary and the CPR, 1962–64. Athabasca University Press. pp. 6, 159. ISBN 978-1-927356-08-1.
  8. Railroad History. Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. 2005. p. 27.
  9. Virginia Byfield; Paul Bunner (2002). The sixties revolution & the fall of Social Credit. United Western Communications. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-9730760-0-4.
  10. Ferguson, Susan (2017-01-12). "Château Champlain Hotel turns 50". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  11. Office of the Governor General of Canada. Order of Canada citation. Queen's Printer for Canada. Retrieved 26 May 2010
  12. The Dock and Harbour Authority. Vol. 53. Foxlow Publications, Limited. 1972. p. 104.

References
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