Career Highlights
At one point or another, Page Crouch has been honored by the International Association of Printing House Craftsmen, National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), International Publishing Management Association, Printing Industries Association of the Carolinas, Printing Industries Association of Georgia, Education Council of the Graphic Arts and Graphic Arts Sales Foundation.
Counted among significant milestones: his 1994 induction into the Academy of Screen Printing Technology and 2007 installation into NAPL’s Walter E. Soderstrom Society.
Beyond FTA, he was long active in the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters, Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, The Association for The Pulp and Paper Industry, Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Gravure Association of America, Envelope Manufacturers Association, International Graphic Arts Education Association, International Association of Diecutting and Diemaking, International Corrugated Packaging Foundation and The Specialty Graphics Imaging Association.
Student & Teacher
Page Crouch is the embodiment of a saying etched on the façade of many school buildings across America, “Those who dare to teach, must never cease to learn.” Former students praise his dedication and commitment to always looking for better ways to do things.
Schawk’s Neil Harrelson has known Page for more than 40 years and takes pride in being one of his earliest students. “I was in all his classes. He taught; we listened. He asked, ‘What do you really want to do and how are you going to get there?’ His message was, ‘Everything has a cause and effect.’ Page encouraged us to think about it. He touched thousands as a teacher. He was enthusiastic and gave us guidance. When you did something, you owned it!
Page didn’t want students watching, he wanted them participating. Real world experience was critical to him. He bridged the gap for students and made them part of the industry.
“Page liked to be a hands on instructor, not an administrator,” Harrelson noted. “He built the program at Clemson. Forty years ago, we did color separations with filters; now we hit a button. We set type—an archaic practice today—but we learned a lot from it and it was fun.
“Dr. Crouch told us, ‘Don’t be afraid to work backward.’ He instilled in us the basics of printing. His advice was always, ‘If you don’t have it, build it.’ I have a patent on mounting equipment as a result—all because he inspired me to think analytically about what is going on and said, ‘You can’t solve a problem until you know what it is.’ To this day, Page is a very good friend.”
Reminiscing about non academic life, Harrelson remembered being recruited to assist Page in building a house on Lake Hartwell. “Being from California, Page had a VW bus, which we loaded full with decorative rocks and boulders. His artistic view was that the rocks and their different colors and shapes would make for pretty landscaping. Who’s afraid of a little back breaking work?”
A wooded, lakeside abode was the perfect fit, Harrelson decreed. “Page is a ‘skier’ and coached the water skiing team at Clemson for years. He always had boats. He loves photography and flowers and has even installed a zip line in the woods.”
Retired flexographer Tim Wake’s early introduction to package printing came through one of Page Crouch’s and Clemson University’s workshops. “I got started with the flexo course—where I was exposed to all the basics and lived and breathed flexo after it,” he recalled. “Page preached to all of his students, myself included, that they needed to pick brains of industry people that were there.”
Wake continued: “Page was such a leader in forging partnerships between education and industry. He was always working to build them and he pushed his students the same way. He believed in internships and encouraged us to establish them. I probably had 30 or more student interns—two at a time and three sets a year over the course of my career. It was an important part of his education program. Page didn’t want students watching, he wanted them participating. Real world experience was critical to him. He bridged the gap for students and made them part of the industry. If he wasn’t talking shop, he was talking water skiing.”