From Capital Hill in D.C. to the Mississippi Delta
Bill Crump, Manager of Corporate-Governmental Affairs
for Viking Range Corporation

BY Lisa Uzzle Gates
DBJ Contributing Writer

Sometimes you have to travel far and wide to find home. Bill Crump found it right where he left it.

The native of Schlater, 15 miles northwest of Greenwood, started out in politics as a young man of 18 when he was elected to an alderman’s post in the small town. The next year he won the mayor’s seat and began a love affair with politics that would span decades, taking him to Washington D.C. and into the White House.

And while it was an exciting and rewarding journey, when it came time to raise his children, Will, 21, and Josh, 18, Crump knew he wanted to do that in the Delta.

“I decided to move back to Mississippi so that my two sons, both who had been born while in D.C., could grow up and experience Mississippi. It is a decision that I have not regretted,” Crump said.

Crump is now the manager of Corporate-Governmental Affairs for Viking Range Corporation in Greenwood. “Viking is an wonderful and exciting place to work. It is a very family oriented company. In fact, over 100 of the employees in the Greenwood-Leflore County area are married to each other. That is very unusual in today’s corporate climate,” he said.

He got a taste of national politics in 1982 when he ran the successful U.S. Congressional campaign for Webb Franklin (R), 2nd District. After Franklin’s election, Crump moved to Washington D.C. to work as his administrative assistant and chief of staff. He served in this capacity until Franklin lost re-election in 1986. From there he became chief of staff to Congressman Connie Mack from Florida, who later served in the U.S. Senate.

During this time, he did a lot of travel advance work in the U.S. and internationally as a volunteer for the White House and the office of former President George H. Bush.

During Franklin’s campaign he met Lee Atwater, the political strategist who was an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush. They became friends over the next few years and in 1988, wound up on the same elevator in Houston the morning after the senior Bush’s win over Michael Dukakis.

“I was in the elevator at the Houstonian Hotel when it stopped and Lee Atwater got on. We talked about the victory and then he asked what I was planning to do when I got back to Washington. I told him I did not have any definite plan. He said ‘call me in a week’. I thought sure – everyone in the U.S. is going to be calling Lee Atwater,” Crump said.

A week later Crump got a phone call. “I thought you were going to call me,” he recalls Atwater saying. “’Have you decided what you want to do in the Bush Administration?’ I told him that I had not thought about it. He said he had just left the White House and a meeting with “The Boss,” as he called President Bush, and that he was going to be going to the Republican National Committee as the Chairman and he wanted me to go with him as his deputy. I didn´t respond, I was dumfounded. He said ‘Do you want to do that or would you rather do something else?’ I finally was able to speak and said that would be fine. He said ‘when can you let go there.’ I responded ‘when do you need me.’ He said, ‘I will pick you up in one hour.’ That was how it started.”

He worked in the Presidential transition office until after the inauguration and then moved to the RNC with Lee in late January 1989. He worked at the RNC until Atwater’s death in 1989 and then rejoined the Bush Administration as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin until January 1992.

After Bill Clinton was elected, Crump continued to work in various jobs in Washington. But by that time the call from home was loud and clear.

“Moving back to Mississippi after being away for 10 years gave me a unique perspective to appreciate things I had never appreciated before. So many Mississippians never leave the state for an extended period of time and do not appreciate some of the most wonderful things about our state,” he said.

After he returned home he served two more terms as mayor of Schlater and opted out of serving a third term. He also went into private business and his wife, the former Jane Gerrard of Cleveland, began working at Viking as a home economist. This is her 10th year with the company and she is the manager of public relations.

Crump has been at Viking for three years. Originally hired to the dealer incentive program, his responsibilities have expanded through the years. He has also served on

the Political Action Committee of Mississippi Manufacturers Association, the Greenwood-Leflore Economic Development Association, and the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board.

“It is exciting to see how Fred Carl has taken an idea, and has turned it into a product and company that has done so much for the people of Greenwood, Leflore County and Mississippi. He often says that he could not have started Viking Range anywhere else. It is also great to be a part of a company that does so much to give back to the community and the surrounding area,” Crump said.

“I feel the same way about Schlater, Greenwood and Mississippi in general. I will always believe that the way I was reared, and that the love and support that I received from my parents as well as friends and neighbors have allowed me to have had, up to this point, a wonderful life, filled with many opportunities of a lifetime." DBJ