Ralph E. Crump ’50

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To describe Ralph Crump as an inventor, researcher and business executive does not do him justice. He may not regard himself as a healer and miracle-worker, but it is certain that his accomplishments have greatly benefitted society. Crump has focused his creative energies on the joining of engineering and medicine, bringing these two disciplines with pioneer efforts in the application of the areas of ophthalmic and gynecologic surgery.

His dedication to interdisciplinary study made him the inspiration for UCLA’s Crump Institute for Medical Engineering, established by the regents in 1976. That same year, the Crump chair in medical engineering was created at UCLA to further the collaboration between health sciences and engineering.

Starting with a small laboratory devoted to low-temperature devices using semiconductor technology, Crump founded Frigitronics, Incorporated in 1962. Today, Frigitronics holds most of the major patents for cryosurgical instruments. A member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Crump has authored several published works in the fields of friction and wear of solid film lubricants, design of heating elements, semiconductor cooling and cryogenics in surgery. He is a former member of the United States Department of Commerce Technical Advisory Board and sits as director of 10 corporations in the United States, several of them public.

Crump was a member of the first graduating class in engineering at UCLA in 1950. He was awarded with the UCLA Engineering Alumnus of the Year Award in 1967 and with the Alumni Association’s Professional Achievement Award in 1975. He serves the University on the board of trustees for the UCLA Foundation, as a member of the UCLA Chancellor’s Associates and as a James West Center benefactor. He has been a regent’s lecturer in the engineering systems department and a dean’s council member of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

In 1984, as we celebrate the “Bruin Gold” 50th anniversary of the UCLA Alumni Association, we are proud to pay tribute to a man who exemplifies the very ideals on which UCLA was founded. Ralph Crump has brought honor to UCLA by the persistent application of his ingenuity toward mankind’s wellbeing. His technological achievements have provided hope and healing, and his innovative and selfless involvements have earned him a special place in the hearts of the UCLA family.