Horace Richard (Dick) Crane was born in 1907 in Turlock, California, the son of Horace Stephen and Mary Alice (Roselle) Crane. He received his BS from California Institute of Technology in 1930 and his PhD in 1934. He came to the Physics Department of the University of Michigan in 1935 and spent his career there. He married Florence Rohmer LeBaron, December 30, 1934. She was an Ann Arbor City Council member (1957-61) and is now deceased. They were the parents of three children, Carol Ann, Janet and George Richard.
Crane's varied research interests have included nuclear physics, accelerator design, atomic structure, biophysics, radio-carbon dating, fundamental constants and geomagnetism. His most important work resulted in the measurement of the g-factor of the free electron and conception of the "racetrack" synchrotron -- a design still used in all major accelerators. He also researched topics related to physics teaching and science literacy.
During World War II, Crane helped to develop radar at MIT and the proximity fuze at the Carnegie Institution and the University of Michigan.
He was chairman of the University of Michigan Physics Department for seven years between 1965 and 1972. In 1972 he was appointed the George P. Williams Professor of Physics and was made emeritus in 1978. He was a member of Board of Governors of American Institute of Physics 1964-71, serving as its chairman 1971-75.
Crane played an important role as a founder of the Midwestern Universities Research Association (MURA), serving as vice-president 1956-57, and as president 1957-60. MURA was created in 1952 with the goal of designing a large accelerator laboratory. It was succeeded by the Universities Research Association in 1965 which designed and built Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois.
Crane was elected president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1965 and received its Oersted Medal in 1977. For many years he edited a monthly column in The Physics Teacher entitled "How Things Work" (1983). One of the founders of the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, he built many of its first exhibits.
Crane received a National Medal of Science in 1986 for the first measurement of the magnetic moment and spin of free electrons and positrons. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
From the guide to the H. R. Crane Papers, 1897-2000, 1933-1995, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)
