Representative Daniel Bever Crane

Daniel Bever Crane (January 10, 1936 – May 28, 2019) was an American dentist, military veteran, and Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois who served three terms in Congress from 1979 to 1985. Over the course of his tenure, he represented Illinois’s 22nd and later 19th congressional districts, participating in the legislative process during a significant period in American political history. His career in public life was marked both by his advocacy of conservative social positions and by a highly publicized censure by the House of Representatives in 1983.

Crane was born in Cook County, Illinois, on January 10, 1936, and grew up in the Chicago area, where he attended Chicago public schools. He was part of a politically active family; his brother, Philip Crane, would also become a Republican congressman from Illinois. After completing his early education, Daniel Crane pursued higher studies at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958. He then entered the field of dentistry, enrolling at Indiana University, where he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) degree in 1963.

Following dental school, Crane undertook graduate work at the University of Michigan in 1964 and 1965, further refining his professional training. He subsequently entered the United States Army in 1967, serving on active duty until 1970. During his military service, he served in Vietnam in the Vietnam War, gaining experience and perspective that would later inform his public service. After leaving active duty, he continued his career as a dentist, establishing himself in private practice.

Crane’s entry into electoral politics came in the late 1970s. Running as a Republican, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and took office on January 3, 1979. He was re-elected in 1980 and 1982, serving three consecutive terms through January 3, 1985. During his time in Congress, he represented first Illinois’s 22nd congressional district and later, following redistricting, the 19th congressional district. In his campaigns and public image, he portrayed himself, as reported by The New York Times, as a solid, churchgoing family man and a conservative Republican who distinguished himself from what he described as the fast-living “Washington set.” In legislative matters, he supported school prayer and opposed abortion rights, aligning himself with the social conservatism that characterized a significant segment of the Republican Party during that era.

Crane’s congressional service was overshadowed by an ethics scandal that emerged in the early 1980s. In 1983, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated allegations that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female House page in 1980. On July 14, 1983, the committee recommended that Crane, along with Representative Gerry Studds of Massachusetts, be reprimanded for misconduct involving teenage pages. Crane acknowledged the accuracy of the charges and supported the recommendation that he be formally censured. On July 20, 1983, the full House of Representatives voted to censure him, a rare and serious disciplinary action that placed him among the small number of members formally censured by the chamber. The scandal contributed to his defeat in the 1984 election, and his service in Congress concluded in January 1985.

After leaving Congress, Crane returned to the practice of dentistry, resuming the profession in which he had been trained and which had preceded his political career. He remained connected to public life in part through his family’s ongoing political involvement, as his brother Philip continued to serve in the House. Crane’s personal life was centered on his family and his long marriage to his wife, Judy, whom he married in 1970. The couple had six children together. Judy Crane died in 2012.

Daniel Bever Crane died on May 28, 2019, at the age of 83. His life encompassed service as a dentist, soldier, and legislator, as well as a notable, and controversial, chapter in the history of congressional ethics and discipline.