Crown International

Robert Leininger worked for Crown International for 21 years both as purchasing manager and production manager. The Elkhart, Indiana based manufacturing plant produced a string of innovative and successful products including reel to reel machines, microphones, loudspeakers, and amplifiers.  Bob was...
Bruce Bartlett is the founder of Bartlett Audio and has designed an impressive list of microphones over his long career. He worked for Shure and Crown International, where he designed and engineered several key products including the boom headset microphone, used by artists such as Garth Brooks,...
Brenda Mortimer worked for Crown International in Elkhart, Indiana for 36 wonderful years. Her mother and aunt both worked in the factory, so Brenda grew up understanding and appreciating the family centric culture in the company. She began in 1981 as a wire cutter but soon advanced, becoming a...
Verne Searer began working part-time for Crown International in 1963. He left to earn his engineering degree at Purdue and returned to Crown in 1970. He stayed nearly twenty more years with the company in several positions including as a technician, engineer, the Director of Engineering, and the...
Tom Szerencse worked his way up to an Engineering Group Manager overseeing Crown International’s design prototyping efforts. In the mid 80’s his team worked with the Marketing department to define new products that would solve customer requirements. Then later he moved to manufacturing as a...
Mary Miller interviewed for a factory job with the founder of Crown International, Clarence Moore. Mary recalled that day in 1966 as the interview was long, but it gave her a chance to understand the company and its values. She left for a year but returned in 1968 and stayed until her retirement in...
Dave McLaughlin began his long career with Crown International as a part time employee in 1968. He later went to college and earned an electrical engineering degree and returned to Crown. He worked alongside famed engineer Gerry Stanley helping with the circuit boards for the DC300 Amps. He also...
Ken Woodcox was an early adopter of computer technology when he proudly joined Crown International in the 1970s. Bringing his skill set to Crown and having the company embrace computers resulted in faster customer service and a wider global reach. Ken became the Sales Manager for the Western United...
Steve Peer has a very interesting take on the 1971 fire that destroyed the Crown International factory in Elkhart, Indiana. Steve just joined the company a few months before the Thanksgiving Day fire but was told the factory started in two chicken coops. Over the years the factory was expanded a...
Jim Wordinger was hired by the founder of Crown International, Clarence Moore, in 1972. While he started as a technician, Jim’s career developed over the years and expanded to engineer and then Principal Engineer before the closing of the Elkhart, Indiana factory in 2018. Among the projects that...

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