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Frederick Coolidge Crawford

American industry has never been known for the breeding of renaissance men. Fred Coolidge is a renaissance man. When he began his industrial career as a millwright's helper for the Thompson Products company in 1916, there was a special spirit about him. He was very probably the only millwright's helper in the history of American industry that had recently graduated from Harvard with a Masters in civil engineering, and a bachelors degree,magna cum laude! A half century later, as president of Thompson, he was the architect of a major U.S. corporation (later merged into Thompson-Ramo Woolridge, and now, TRW, Inc.), an avid promoter of The Thompson Trophy, one of aviation's great racing prizes, and the grande patron of fine art with aviation themes.

It was not, of course, all one, two, three.  Crawford had the talent to pull failure into success, and ride out the assorted financial high-jinks of the 1930s.

Crawford has also helped spark the financial renaissance in current education. He was, for example, an overseer at Harvard when it raised $83,000,000 and chairman of the trustees at Case Institute when it raised $40,000,000. He is a nut about old cars, old airplanes, and old-fashioned ideas about historical heritage; the Auto-Aviation Museum of Western Reserve Historical Society is named after him.

[[image - small drawing of a propeller]]

Frederick C. Crawford: born Watertown, Mass., March 19, 1891.

[[image No. 40 - painting of an air racer by Charles H. Hubbell]]

[[image No. 41 - black & white photograph of Roscoe Turner, a Thompson Trophy winner]]

[[image No. 42 - black & white photograph of Frederick Crawford and Anson B. Johnson]]

[[caption]] Crawford, with Anson B. Johnson (42), the 1948 Thompson Trophy winner. He flew a P-51 Mustang to a $40,000 prize. Roscoe Turner (41) was 1934, 1938, 1939 Trophy winner. One of many Thompson-commissioned Charles H. Hubbell paintings.]]

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