Baron D. Crane, 1895-1995

CRANE, DANA, BAUMGARTEN, HOLMES, CARLSON, SALZMAN

Posted By: Pat Ryan White (email)
Date: 10/22/2013 at 06:30:31

BARON D. CRANE

Baron D. Crane, 100, of 601 N. White, Mount Pleasant, died early Monday, Nov. 13, 1995, at home.

Born March 31, 1895, at Burlington, he was the son of Frederick B. and Edna L. Dana Crane. On June 16, 1925, he married Ruth M. Baumgarten at Burlington.

He attended Central School and was a 1912 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. He was a 1916 graduate of Iowa Wesleyan College, with his last semester being at Harvard University. He graduated from the University of Illinois Business School before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1917.

He served in France in the Signal Corps installing, servicing and calibering machine guns on bi-wing fighter planes until World War I ended.

Returning to Iowa, he worked on his uncle's farms in Missouri and north of Burlington. He also briefly worked at Marshall Fields in Chicago.

In 1924, he graduated from Bradley University at Peoria, Ill., in watchmaking and repair and optometry. He also studied optometry under Harry P. Holmes at Des Moines before joining his father at F.B. Crane and Son Jewelry Store in Mount Pleasant. In 1965, he sold the jewelry store and moved his optometry practice to North Main Street, until retiring in 1979.

He was of the Protestant faith. He was a member of the Mount Pleasant Public Library Board, the Chamber of Commerce, American Legion Bob Tribby Post 58, Mount Pleasant Rotary Club, and the Mount Pleasant Masonic Lodge No. 8.

Survivors include his wife; one son, Frederick B. Crane of Mount Pleasant; one daughter, Barbara Carlson of Setauket, N.Y.; four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and one sister, Frances Salzman of Mount Pleasant.

He was preceded in death by his parents and one sister.

Visitation will be from noon to 9 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. until noon Saturday at the Weir Funeral Home in Mount Pleasant. There will be no family visitation.

A private family memorial service and private burial will be held Saturday.

A memorial has been established for Iowa Wesleyan College.

[Unnamed, undated news clipping; probably 'Mt. Pleasant News', November 14, 1995]