Stanley Crane

Leo Stanley Crane (September 7, 1915 – July 15, 2003) was a railroad executive who served as CEO of Southern Railway. Trained as a chemical engineer, Crane was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1978. After retiring from Southern Railway, he worked for Conrail where he later endowed the L. Stanley Crane Chair of engineering in applied sciences at his alma mater, George Washington University. Career He graduated from The George Washington University with a chemical engineering degree in 1938. He began his career with Southern Railway, and worked for the railroad, except for a stint from 1959 to 1961 with the Pennsylvania Railroad, until reaching the company's mandatory retirement age in 1980. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1978. Crane went to Conrail in 1981 after a distinguished career that had seen him rise to the position of CEO at the Southern Railway. With Conrail Crane went to Conrail in 1981, where he presided over the turnaround of the deficit-plagued railroad, which began turning a profit as a result of Staggers Act freedoms and its own managerial improvements under his leadership. While the Staggers Act helped immensely in allowing all railroads to more easily abandon unprofitable rail lines and set their own freight rates, it was under Crane's leadership that Conrail truly became a profitable operation. In the two years after he took office in 1981 he shed 4,400 miles from the Conrail system, which accounted for only 1% of the railroad's overall traffic and 2% of its profits while saving it millions of dollars in maintenance costs.