Alan Crane: A Remembrance

“To my dad, it was always about the people,” said Bruce Crane, the youngest of Alan’s three children. (He also had three stepchildren he loved as his own, as well as 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was happily married to his supportive wife Lori for 41 years.) Bruce joined his father at Crane Carton in 1982 and became COO in 1994. His sisters, Beth and Jennifer, also worked for Crane Carton for a period of time, in customer service and quality assurance. Following the acquisition, father and son both stayed on for four years to maintain leadership continuity; they served as senior manager and general manager, respectively, of Caraustar Chicago Carton. In August 2002, the elder Crane said to an industry reporter, “If we hadn’t told our employees that we had sold the company, they wouldn’t even have known.”