Jim Crown: Leader of family, interested in the grit, big ambitions, personal friend to presidents

And there’s more, much more. News stories, statements from a president and a former president who plainly were friends, moments of silence in Aspen, tweets. Lots of tweets.

An investigation continues into Jim Crown’s death in a single vehicle accident on his 70th birthday on Sunday at the Aspen Motorsports Park in Woody Creek. Authorities said they will release more information at the conclusion.

“He was driving a race car, and it hit a wall going around a curve,” his father, billionaire financier Lester Crown, told their hometown Chicago Sun-Times.

His father described him as the leader of the family, who looked out for everyone emotionally as well as intellectually.

The Sun-Times reported that several weeks ago, Jim Crown — chairman and chief executive officer of Henry Crown & Co. in Chicago and managing partner of Aspen Skiing Co. — had pledged that he and other Chicago corporate leaders would find jobs for as many as 10,000 young men from high-crime areas that would reduce the number of killings in Chicago to fewer than 400 a year within five years. Last year, there were 695.

Crown’s family was ranked 34th richest in America by Forbes in 2020, which estimated its fortune at $10.2 billion. 

A friend, former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner, told the Sun-Times: “One thing people who knew Jim well would say about him, which puts him in a rare category in my experience, is that he was super-smart, really low-key, and really down-to-earth and gentle. He wore his success and his power lightly.” 

Closer to our home, Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability at Skico, told The Colorado Sun how he met Crown at a party when he was new to the company in the late 1990s.

“He said ‘Oh, Auden, welcome to the company, thanks for what you are doing. How’s your toilet program working?'” Schendler said. “I was like, ‘Oh my, God, how great is it that this guy is on the board at JPMorgan and he knows about my toilet plan.'”

He remembered that “Jim let us run with some wild shit. Over the years, he would describe what we were doing and what he was supporting as ‘enlightened self-interest.’ Over time, it became something more than that.”

Other expressions of sorrow and remembrance were a bit more buttoned down. The Aspen Ideas Festival this week has naturally born extra weight with the sudden passing of the Aspen Institute board’s past chair and board member. He could count many close friends on the campus.

Margo Pritzker, chair of the Aspen Institute’s board, came onstage Tuesday at the Benedict Music Hall before the welcome to the audience for the Afternoon of Conversation featuring Liz Cheney, Katie Couric, Lester Holt, Lyle Lovette, and others, including Walter Isaacson, Cesar Conde, Almar Latour and Jon Meacham — all friends of Jim Crown.

Pritzker paid homage to “my fellow trustee” and offered her condolences to his loved ones and family. He is survived by his parents, Lester and Renée (Schine); his wife of 38 years, Paula (Hannaway); six siblings; and his children, Torie, Hayley, W. Andrew, Summer Crown; his son-in-law Matt McKinney; and two grandchildren, Jackson and Lucas McKinney.

“He was a kind and humble man,” Pritzker told the crowd. “I hear Jim’s voice in my ear whenever we tried to acknowledge him and his accomplishments. … He would always say ‘Thank you, now let’s move on.'”

Gentle laughter rippled through the audience. And in keeping with Crown’s spirit, she kept the tribute sweet, short and direct, leaving the stage to speakers who would discuss global and national threats, music, drama and physics for the rest of the afternoon discussion.

Former President Barack and Michelle Obama, in a page-long statement, included this personal memory: “He even introduced our girls to the joys of Aspen winter. Just a couple weeks ago, we spent an evening with Jim and Paula and experienced Jim’s warmth and kindness for what we didn’t know would be the last time. He was so much more than the business or civic leader he will be remembered as — he was a dynamic and deeply devoted son, husband, father, brother, and friend. We are just so lucky to have known him.”

There are more messages, many more. But let’s stop here, and get on with it, as more than one friend said he would want.

Managing Editor Lynda Edwards contributed to this report.