Robert H. Craven Sr., former owner and retired president of F.A. Davis publishing company, industry innovator, and Navy pilot, has died at 100
As other Philadelphia publishers sold out, closed, or merged during the tumultuous 1970s and '80s, he created growth and sustainability and kept his firm under family control.
Robert H. Craven Sr., 100, formerly of Devon, former owner and retired president of Philadelphia-based F.A. Davis Co., longtime publishing-industry innovator, and former Navy pilot, died Wednesday, Aug. 17, of pneumonia and failure to thrive at Daylesford Crossing retirement community.
Mr. Craven became president of F.A. Davis, one of the oldest and most successful family-owned publishing companies in the country, in 1960 and steered it to continued success through rocky times in the 1970s and ‘80s. As other publishers closed, sold out, or merged, he targeted new markets in the health sciences, retained independent ownership for the founder’s descendants, and led the company, established in 1879, to expansion and sustainability.
“As president, the most acute problem was to get additional financing for the company,” Mr. Craven wrote in his 2012 autobiographical self-published book, What Does a Pubisher Do? “All publishers had experienced their greatest growth between 1945 and 1960. Davis showed no growth and little to no profit, but I wanted to catch up with the times.”
To do that, Mr. Craven improved the company’s credit rating, client list, and sales strategy, and joined or founded several innovative industry associations. He was a founding member and two-time president of the American Medical Publishers’ Association, group executive for the International Publishers Association, and board member of the Association of American Publishers.
“He was an ambassador for publishing,” said his son Robert Jr., who succeeded his father as F.A. Davis president in 1989. “There would be no legacy without him. The company persevered through some very difficult times during his reign. His wit, his charm, his charisma, his tenacity, his love of family, and a wonderful knack for storytelling helped keep the company going onward and upward.”
Born June 16, 1922, in New York, Mr. Craven moved when he was 5 to his aunt’s home in Ridley Park after his father died. He graduated from Ridley Park High School and, inspired by his older brother Jim, a military pilot, joined the Navy in 1943 and became a flying instructor and later a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in business and engineering from Drexel University after his discharge in 1945, married Martha Leahy Snyder, and they had sons Robert Jr. and Bruce and daughter Elizabeth. After her death, he married Judi Parks Herron. They divorced, and he married Ruth Miller. His wife died in 2019. His second wife and daughter also died earlier.
Mr. Craven joined F.A. Davis after college and worked in the warehouse, with vendors, and in production, advertising, and sales until his aunt and the company’s owner and second president, Irene Davis, named him president. “I never had an urge to sell the company,” he wrote in What Does a Pubisher Do? “It had been a part of me, and I have been a part of it.”
Over the years, he led seminars, meetings, and conferences around the country for publishers and represented industry organizations at events in Paris, Stockholm, Mexico City, Tokyo, London, and elsewhere. He also self-published books about the Davis company history and his family history.
A natural storyteller, Mr. Craven shared tales in his books about his eventful childhood and colorful career. As company president, he spent time reimagining the publishing world and courting new customers at the Downtown Club, writing that the place “had the best food and the best martinis in Philadelphia.” The bar in the back room, he wrote, was one of his favorite haunts.
Mr. Craven lived in Philadelphia, Springfield, Rose Valley, Villanova, and Devon before moving to Daylesford Crossing in 2019. He read a lot, had season tickets to the Eagles, played golf at Philadelphia Country Club, and spent winters in Florida after he retired.
Having few paternal role models as a child, he became the kind of father, son Robert said, he would have wanted for himself. “The family that got to know him all loved him,” his son said. “He spread his love, and it became a cohesion.”
Generally reserved, Mr. Craven was nonetheless popular among his colleagues and the center of attention at many professional gatherings. When told by one of his friends that his signature laugh and sense of humor had not diminished with age, he replied: “I like that. I want to be remembered that way.”
In addition to his sons, Mr. Craven is survived by three grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and other relatives. His brother died earlier.
Services were Aug. 31.
Donations in his name may be made to Philabundance, 3616 S. Galloway St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19148.