Judge Crump was born December 29, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. He moved around as a boy, living in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from Chicago Vocational High School, graduating sixth out of a class of 415. Judge Crump’s aptitude for math and science convinced him that he wanted to study engineering and physics. So, he enrolled at Wilson Junior College, where he received an Associate of Arts degree in engineering and physics. It was there that one of his chemistry teachers, who was also a pharmacy professor, interested him in being a pharmacist. As a result, Judge Crump enrolled in the pharmacy program at the University of Illinois Medical Center. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry and pharmacy, a five-year degree program, and became a registered pharmacist!

But history repeated itself. While he was in pharmacy school, Judge Crump took a class in pharmacy law from a professor who was a professor of pharmacy and a lawyer. He loved the course, got an "A", and got the "itch" to go to law school.

Judge Crump enrolled in the evening law school program at DePaul University in Chicago. After he enrolled, he was told that it was more prestigious to receive a law degree from the day program at the law school, so he transferred to the day program even though he continued to take all of his classes at night. Nothing in the law school’s rules prevented a day student from taking night courses! Crump was on the Dean’s list, was selected for law review, and graduated in the top quarter of his class in 1974.

Labor law was one of the courses that interested Judge Crump, and he interviewed for a position with the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB] as a staff attorney. A week before he graduated, Judge Crump was offered a job with the NLRB and given a choice of moving to Washington, D.C., or Minneapolis. Judge Crump chose Minneapolis. He then practiced law as a staff attorney with the Eighteenth Regional Office of the NLRB in Minneapolis.

In 1975, Crump accepted a position as the assistant to the director of the St. Paul Civil Rights Department. He found that the skills he had learned at the NLRB were valuable in this position. Judge Crump established case handling standards and procedures, trained investigators, and eliminated a backlog of cases, which was crippling the agency. Judge Crump is proud of his work to establish time standards for case handling, which enabled investigators to get cases processed on time and provided the management tools to monitor employee performance and justify the staff needed to get the job done.

In 1978, Judge Crump became a Hearing Examiner with the Minnesota Office of Hearing Examiners. In 1983, the job title was changed to Administrative Law Judge, and the department was renamed the Office of Administrative Hearings. Administrative law judges conduct hearings on rulemaking and contested cases under the Minnesota Administrative Procedure Act. Judge Crump heard a wide variety of cases in all areas of administrative law, but he was frequently assigned to cases where he could use his technical background, including environmental cases and contested cases in the health sciences.

In this position, once again, a fortuitous occurrence led to a new career path. Judge Crump was assigned to hear a utility rate case. He quickly developed an expertise on this complex and complicated subject. As a result, he was increasingly assigned to cases in this area. One of these was a case involving NSP’s request for a rate increase to reflect the estimated $780 million cost of decommissioning the utility’s nuclear plants at Monticello and Prairie Island at the end of their useful lives. After months of hearings and thousands of pages of testimony, Crump allowed NSP to establish a sinking fund, using revenues from investments as well as rate payments to fund the costs of decommissioning. Judge Crump’s ruling was adopted by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

Judge Crump’s increasing knowledge about regulation of public utilities led to his appointment by Governor Perpich to a position on the Public Utilities Commission, the agency charged with regulating utility rates and service. Judge Crump later served as chair of that commission.

Judge Crump was appointed a Hennepin District Court Judge and sworn in on December 1, 1987. He replaced Judge Robert Schumacher, who was elevated to the Court of Appeals.

Judge Crump has an active life away from the law, as well. He lives with his wife, Alice, and two of his seven children in Minneapolis. He is an avid skier and serves as an instructor in first aid and rescue techniques with the National Ski Patrol. And, the end of winter doesn’t end Judge Crump’s outdoor activities. He is a certified scuba diver and teaches wind surfing on Twin Cities area lakes. He also admits to being a modestly good golfer.

Being an avid sportsman hasn’t prevented Judge Crump from participating in public-service activities. He’s been an active member of the St. Paul Urban League; a board member of a group helping minorities with chemical dependency problems; and an active member of the Hennepin County Bar Association/Legal Advice Clinics, Ltd. [LAC], where he served as a clinic lawyer seeing three or four low-income clients one night per month on a pro bono basis. Judge Crump has also served on LAC’s board of directors for many years. He says that one of his few regrets about becoming a judge is that he has had to give up his participation in many of these groups because of conflict of interest problems or because his presence on the governing board might be construed as participation in the organization’s fund-raising activities—something that is forbidden to judges as the Code of Judicial Conduct is interpreted in Minnesota.

So what is it like being a District Court Judge after years of experience as an Administrative Law Judge? "I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a big change," responds Judge Crump. "I think my experience deciding cases at the Public Utilities Commission, as an Administrative Law Judge, and as a hearing examiner at the NLRB has helped, but so much of being a District Court Judge can’t compare with anything else."

For example, there’s arraignment court. "A judge really has no control over the volume you’ve got to handle," Judge Crump observed. "Some days you get over 200 cases. Many people don’t have attorneys, and some really don’t understand what’s happening to them, but you’ve got to find some way of disposing of all those cases without sacrificing fairness. The average person has little contact with the courts." Crump continued, "I try to be accessible to people, to try to help them understand what’s going on in words and concepts they can understand."

One problem that troubles Judge Crump is that of the mentally ill who have fallen through the cracks in the system. "One day I had three or four people before me on theft and disorderly conduct charges. They didn’t have enough orientation to their situation to understand the court proceedings or what was happening to them no matter how much explanation they received. They really weren’t competent to be on the street, but they weren’t sick enough to be committed. We really need to find a way to deal with these people."

Judge Crump says that to him, fairness is the single most important aspect of being a judge: "I want to be thought of as a judge whose background is based on fairness. I want the prosecutor, the defendant, and the victim all to perceive the handling of a criminal matter as fair, even if they don’t happen to agree with the result."

One thing that has impressed Judge Crump since his appointment is the assistance he has received from other judges. "It is really a pleasure on finding out how much help other judges are willing to give. Everybody has been helpful in talking over problems with procedures and rulings on tough issues. I’m responsible for my own rulings, but it’s nice to be able to talk over a problem with another judge who’s seen the problems first-hand."