Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Our History


1974 Donnelley Extra Bindery Staff, William Crusius third
from right, Robert Weinberg third from left.


As so often happens in life, when one door closes another door opens. In 1982, William Crusius faced this exact situation. Bill had recently been told by his bosses at R.R. Donnelley that they were closing the Extra Bindery department in which he had worked as a master book binder and book conservator for over 33 years. The Extra Bindery was a boutique department of sorts R. R. Donnelley staffed as a corporate perk for special clients. When Queen Elizabeth came it Chicago in 1957, the company had Bill prepare a special leather bound book with gold tooling specially for Her Majesty. However, modern times demanded more streamline operations, and departments like the Extra Bindery were no longer considered necessary or profitable. With the closing of the department, Bill and his colleague, Robert Weinberg were left wondering what next.


Bob (left) and Bill (right) working on oversize globe.

Bill and Bob understood book and paper conservation was a specialization of theirs they could market to form a business. As the bindery was closing down, Bill and Bob financed the purchase of all their old equipment and moved shop from their previous residence to a new location which would be the site of their new business. Thus, Graphic Conservation was born.

From the beginning Bill and Bob were committed to the highest quality museum standard conservation.With our international client base, Graphic Conservation has since been delivering world class services ranking us as one of the premier Book and Paper Conservation firms in the country.


1995 Graphic team members clockwise from left, Sharon Paschke,
Margo Powell, Christina Marusich, William Crusius, Robert Weinberg.


There have been many changes throughout the years. Bob retired many years ago, and Bill sadly passed away in 2006. Christina Marusich and Sharon Pascke now lead our team of conservators, and through all these changes, we remain proudly determined to continue precedent of quality and care set by our founders over 26 years ago.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Anyone who knew my Uncle Bill was very lucky indeed. We spent many of those family summer vacations with him at Green Lake fishing. We caught more than our share of striped bass and never drank enough beers while he pulled us water skiing or eating all the fish. He was always good for a great laugh and serious conversation as well. I can hear him now making his wry remarks about the last card played in the poker game and yelling for Janie to get us another beer. JP

Graphic Conservation said...

We miss Bill so much as well. Thanks so much for your comments!