Chicago small business executive and philanthropist Jim Crown killed in Colorado racetrack crash

Jim Crown, an govt and philanthropist who not too long ago introduced an work to rally other small business leaders to help battle violent criminal offense in Chicago, died Sunday in a motor vehicle crash on a racing monitor in Colorado. He was 70.

Crown, a grandson of industrialist Henry Crown and the chief government of Henry Crown & Co., was associated in a solitary-vehicle incident at the Aspen Motorsports Park in Woody Creek, the Pitkin County coroner’s office claimed in a news launch.

“The formal cause of dying is pending autopsy, while many blunt drive trauma is apparent,” explained the coroner’s business office, which classified the dying as accidental.

Crown’s father, financier Lester Crown, reported his son “was driving a race car, and it strike a wall heading about a curve,” the Chicago Sun-Moments reported.

“There by no means was a finer human remaining in each individual way,” Lester Crown mentioned. “He was the leader of our household equally intellectually and emotionally, and he appeared out for most people. He also was a good chief also for the community. It is just a heartfelt loss. There are no words and phrases that can categorical it.”

Jim Crown, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, claimed this thirty day period that he and other Chicago corporate leaders were committed to acquiring work for as numerous as 10,000 younger males, in accordance to the Sunlight-Moments.

“Jim was a pillar of Chicago, a well known voice in the Jewish local community, and a genuine civic chief who beloved our town,” former President Barack Obama and previous initially girl Michelle Obama mentioned in a statement. “He cared deeply about Chicago and producing it a location the place all people could thrive — no matter who they are or what component of town they call dwelling.”

“Jim gave back to the city as a result of philanthropy and management on a range of civic and academic boards as he was deeply fully commited to investing in Chicago and its men and women,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson mentioned Monday in a statement. “With his generosity, Jim definitely embodied the soul of Chicago. I was in particular grateful for his motivation to operate collaboratively with my administration to build a safer Chicago, having fulfilled recently to share strategies.”

Crown’s household company, Henry Crown & Co., invests in public and non-public securities, true estate, and working firms.

He also was handling companion of Aspen Snowboarding Co. He had been serving as lead director at Standard Dynamics Corp. and as a director at JPMorgan Chase, his relatives reported in a launch.

Crown also was a trustee on various boards and committees which include The Aspen Institute and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. He was appointed by Obama to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

“The Crown spouse and children is deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Jim Crown in an accident earlier (Sunday),” his spouse and children said. “The family members requests that their privacy be revered at this tricky time. Even more details relating to programs for a memorial to bear in mind Jim’s amazing existence will be released at a later on date.”

Born in Chicago in 1953, Crown attained a bachelor’s in political science in 1976 from Hampshire Faculty in Amherst, Massachusetts. He gained his regulation diploma in 1980 from Stanford Regulation University, his relatives reported.

He later on joined Salomon Brothers Inc. in New York as an associate and grew to become a vice president of the Capital Marketplaces Service Group in 1983. He joined his family’s investment firm in Chicago in 1985.

Crown is survived by his spouse, Paula mom and dad Lester and Renée 6 siblings 4 small children a son-in-law and two grandchildren.