Norris Roy ("Buck") Crump, (July 30, 1904 – December 26, 1989) was a Canadian businessman, who was chairman and president of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

(CPR). He was primarily responsible for converting the railroad to diesel locomotives, and expanded the company into non-transportation sectors.

Early life and education

Crump was born in

Revelstoke, British Columbia Revelstoke () is a city in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, with a census population of 8,275 in 2021. Revelstoke is located east of Vancouver, and west of Calgary, Alberta. The city is situated on the banks of the Columbia River just s ...

. His father was a railway superintendent. Crump joined the CPR as an apprentice machinist in 1920, when he was sixteen years old. In between working for the railway, he earned a bachelors and in 1936 a master's degree at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

Career

After working as a track labourer and then in the machine shop, Crump was transferred to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, 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 Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

as an assistant to the vice president, and in 1943 became superintendent of the Ontario district. 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. Crump was elected president in 1955; the company was severely in debt at the time. At the time the company was mainly using diesel locomotives only in the railyards; during the following twelve years, Crump oversaw the

dieselisation Dieselisation (US: dieselization) is the process of equipping vehicles with a diesel engine or diesel engines. It can involve replacing an internal combustion engine powered by petrol (US: gasoline) fuel with an engine powered by diesel fuel, ...

of the railroad. He ordered the purchase of new equipment to commence operation of a new trans-continental train ''

The Canadian ''The Canadian'' () is a transcontinental passenger train operated by Via Rail with service between Union Station in Toronto, Ontario, and Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Pacific introduced this serv ...

'' which began operation in April 1955. To improve profit margins Crump initiated a reorganization and expansion of the company's non-rail business. An admirer of

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; 13 August 1574#Fichier]For a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see #Ritch, RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December ...

, founder of

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

and

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

, it was Crump who proposed naming the company's Montreal hotel

Château Champlain The Montreal Marriott Château Champlain is a skyscraper hotel located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, overlooking Place du Canada, at 1050 De la Gauchetière Street West. History Opened on January 11, 1967, Le Château Champlain was constructed by ...

after him. In 1971 he was made a Companion of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

and in 1974 Crump retired.

Notes

References

Norris Roy Crump
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crump, Buck 1904 births 1989 deaths Canadian Pacific Railway executives Companions of the Order of Canada People from Revelstoke, British Columbia Canadian chief executives