Full speed ahead

"Which one of these blocks doesn't belong here?" "Which image doesn't fit?" These types of questions reinforce the need for conformity in which most people are indoctrinated. Jeremy Crews (mechanical engineering '57) knows that different is good, and that unconventional attitudes pave the road to invention and success. Not that this sometime pilot feels the need to stick to roadways....

After founding Marine Development Corporation in 1959 to manufacture yachting accessory designs, including the globally used Cruisair boat air conditioning products, Crews found himself with 140 employees and "stuck in the front office dealing with city hall, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and other encumbrances, so I retired from the front office to plan and organize a new start." The Richmond-based Crews sold the company in 1998 to concentrate on three start-up companies: Atlantic Marine Products, which builds marine water heaters; Linear Devices Corporation, which makes the Lectrotab, an electromechanical trim tab for boats; and MacBone Industries, Ltd., which manufactures hydraulically driven operator's cab air conditioning units for railroad maintenance machines and other large industrial vehicles.

Crews' non-stop energy and dedication earned him the recognition of his peers. He was presented with the Freedman Award in August 2000 from the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), which gives the award to an individual who has been judged by his or her peers to have continuously participated in and contributed to, over a period of years, the yachting or pleasure boating industry.

Receiving the Freedman Award was a great honor for Crews, but he says it doesn't signify a cap on his career. "I can't imagine what it would be like to retire," he says. Because Crews is not the type to rest on his laurels, his many hard-earned successes haven't slowed him down. "Focusing on the money in the bank, which is too often the case, will put you in the local bar, with others like you, hashing over what might have been," he says. "If the work is the passion, you will likely succeed, and the money will take care of itself; but if you stop to count too often, you are wasting valuable time."

The spirit of play powers Crews

A free-spirited inventor, Crews was also a tinkering tot. At age seven, he motorized his mother's pencil sharpener, proving her statement that he was "born in high gear." As a student at Virginia Tech, he preferred to leave his car's power windows open to keep the vehicle cool. Unexpected showers posed a problem, but not for long. Crews designed a sensor that appeared to be a normal hood ornament--when wet, it would cause the windows to close. However, Crews' classmates soon figured out that a wet finger on his hood ornament would close the windows, too. That problem didn't last long, either. Crews simply modified the sensor to open the windows again when it dried off.

Crews still tinkers whenever he gets the chance, never having lost the playful spirit that colored his early life. His "toys," an array of aircraft, boats, and cars, are constantly being built, rebuilt, and modified--he built one helicopter entirely from a kit. Since 1965, he has flown both airplanes and helicopters; today, he flies a Beechcraft Baron. Feeling a bit conspicuous--but enjoying it anyway--he arrived at his 35th class reunion at Tech in a helicopter. When not in the air, Crews cruises around in various boats and cars. His boats have ranged from eight feet to 58 feet, both power and sail. He presently owns a 28-foot weekender with outboards and hopes he "has the good sense to make this one the last one." He bought a 1930 Ford model A sedan with his paper route money in 1949 even though he didn't yet have a driver's license. He drove the car during his years at Tech, sold it, and bought it back. He continues to drive it to this day.

Refusing to "push 1, push 2"

At Crews' office, you won't find him dictating memos on office supply use and the proper dress code, but you will find him in his workshop, or perhaps in his office, feet propped up in boat shoes instead of wingtips, legs unencumbered by anything more dressy than shorts. "I have outgrown suits--mostly horizontally--but I have never worn one out," he says.

In a mechanized business world where people can sometimes feel like numbers, Crews not only refuses to wear a suit, but also to follow suit. When he encounters an automated phone system, he "refuses to push 1, push 2." His free-spirited defiance of traditional expectations of what he should be and how he should look and talk foster his creativity. "Conventional ideas, by definition, belong to others, which is probably reason enough to look elsewhere," Crews says. "And so, I do and have fun being unconventional and wear the badge proudly."

Keeping the military's motor running

Crews and his company received a call on June 1 to produce an auxiliary power unit for the military by June 27. They delivered a complex, "from scratch," fully functional, proof-of-concept unit, followed by two more units on July 16 and July 26. His product will help the military save fuel by heating and cooling command vehicles so that even when they're sitting still, the main engine doesn't have to run. On supporting the military in trying times, Crews says, "All of us at MacBone Industries look forward to designing and building production units as soon as they are needed. Given the events of Sept. 11, that may be sooner than later."