Feb 29, 2012Dan Crawford, Spudman founder, dies at 89
Spudman magazine founder Dan Crawford died on Monday, Feb. 20, in Klamath Falls, Ore. He was 89.
Crawford grew up in Tulelake, Calif., where he met his wife, Ardina. They were married in 1943 and began farming in the Tulelake and Merrill areas.
Crawford said many times that he made “a lousy farmer.” That led him to take up a career in agricultural journalism, starting with the Tulelake Reporter and going on to land an editing job with Lockwood Manufacturing in Gering, Neb.
However, long hours and travel kept him away from home and family too much. Fifty 50 years ago, Crawford struck out on his own by creating Spudman, a monthly magazine focusing on the potato industry.
“It was my opinion that potatoes were one of the major factors in the food chain and that I could make it with a potato magazine that would concentrate on that,” Crawford said in a Spudman profile on him published earlier this year.
He sold Spudman to Don Miller in 1977. Current publisher Matt McCallum, owner of Sparta, Mich.-based Great American Media Services, purchased the magazine in 1999.
Crawford was preceded in death by Ardina in 2010. He is survived by his brother and his wife, Malcolm and Londa; son and daughter-in-law, Charley and Patti Crawford; daughter and son-in-law, Stephanie and Terry Alcorn; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
“A guy’s attitude is all that counts,” he said in that last interview with Spudman. “Life is 10 percent what happens and 90 percent how you react to it. If you’ve got a good attitude, you just see the good stuff when it comes along.”
To read about Dan Crawford and the start-up of Spudman, visit http://spud.wpengine.com/index.php/magazine/article/celebrating-50-years-true-grit.
To watch a video interview with Dan Crawford, click here.
