Former Illinois Congressman and Conservative Icon Phil Crane Dies at 84

Philip Crane, a conservative icon who represented the northwest suburbs in Congress for 35 years, died Saturday of respiratory failure at his daughter’s home in Maryland at the age of 84, surrounded by his family.

He was first elected to Congress in 1969, filling a seat vacated by Donald Rumsfeld who went to work at the White House. A dark horse candidate, he defeated six opponents in a special election. Crane held the seat until he was defeated by an upstart Democrat, Melissa Bean, in 2004.

An anti-tax crusader and an advocate of free markets, Crane ran for president in 1980, bowing out when fellow conservative Ronald Reagan assumed a commanding lead. Crane was one of the few Republicans to back Reagan in 1976 when the challenged incumbent President Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk released a statement Sunday on Crane’s passing.

“He will always be remembered for vowing to never raise taxes, a promise he kept through his long career, and for expanding trade opportunities for our state,” the Republican senator said.

When he left Congress, Crane was the longest-serving House Republican.

Crane, who was suffering from lung cancer and congestive heart failure, was preceded in death by his wife, Arlene, and a daughter. Last week, he celebrated his 84th birthday.

“The best memories we have are summer trips with our father,” Crane’s daughter, Catherine Hott, told the Chicago Tribune. The Crane family lived in Wauconda for many years. “Every year we went to a different state by a different mode of transport, including camper and house boat. We have unbelievable memories of summer vacations with our father, usually in August when Congress was in recess. ...

“He was a very spiritual man, quoting Biblical phrases to us constantly. He reared us to be very independent. Always told us to make the world a better place than where we found it. He loved his country, fought the good fight, very right-wing conservative, Christian values, family values.”

Born in Chicago, Crane served in the Army, earned a PhD at Indiana University and was a history professor at Bradley University. He worked on Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. He published a book in 1976 titled, “The Sum of Good Government,” espousing his philosophy of small government and low taxes.

In the late 1970s, Crane was at the height of his influence. He served as chairman of the American Conservative Union, the oldest conservative lobbying group in the United States, and led its fights against President Jimmy Carter’s policies.

“Phil was conservative before it was cool to be conservative,” former Crane staffer, Eric Elk, told the Washington Post.

His brother Dan Crane also served in Congress, and another brother, David Crane, ran for the U.S. House in Indiana a few times but was never elected. The trio sometimes were called “the Kennedys of the Right.”

Crane was father to seven children, and Ekl said he would write poems to each of them for their birthdays.

In 2000, Phil Crane admitted publicly that he had been battling alcoholism. In 2002, Melissa Bean challenged him and almost beat Crane. In their 2004 rematch, she did. His once staunch conservative district had gotten more liberal over the years.

As he prepared to leave Congress following his defeat in 2004, Crane told the Daily Herald that his belief in and advocacy for the North American Free Trade Agreement was an accomplishment he was most proud of.

“I’ve always been a staunch advocate of the advancement of free trade,” Crane told the newspaper, which had endorsed him many times in his career. “When I used to be a history prof, I told the kids that free trade has done more to advance civilized values than anything else in the span of recorded history. It’s that personal contact. It’s had a beneficial effect for the entire world.”

Crane, whose funeral will be Thursday, will be buried on the family farm in Indiana.