VT Stories Oral History with Kevin Crofton, September 29, 2017

Ren Harman: Good morning. This is Ren Harman, the project director for VT

Stories. Today is September 29, 2017 at about 10:10 AM. We are in the Alumni

Library in the Holtzman Alumni Center on the campus of Virginia Tech with a very

special guest. If you could just say your full name, when you were born and

where you were born.

Kevin Crofton: Hi. My name is Kevin Timothy Crofton, and I was born on March 28,

1961 in Bethesda, Maryland.

Ren: What years did you attend Virginia Tech?

Kevin: From 1978 to 1982.

Ren: Your major?

Kevin: My major was in aerospace and ocean engineering.

Ren: You were born in Bethesda. Can you tell me just a little bit about growing

up and your early life?

Kevin: Well, you know I really grew up in Fincastle, Virginia. You know that's

farm country. You're surrounded by, well 00:01:00obviously you're surrounded by farms

and it's a beautiful place, idyllic, just a wonderful place to grow up and to

work and just kind of start your life. I loved it.

Ren: Yeah. Fincastle is it Botetourt County?

Kevin: Botetourt County, yeah.

Ren: It's a pretty small town, right?

Kevin: Oh it's like Podunk. It's Podunk, Virginia. It's a really tiny place but

super nice.

Ren: I grew up in a small town in southwest Virginia, Richland, so we have a

little small-town connection. What can you tell me about your mom and dad?

Kevin: Oh yeah, let's see. My dad was educated at the University of Maryland. He

has always been quite active in working with, initially when I knew of him when

we were growing up he was involved in working with children that had

disadvantaged growth and he was a bit of an educator. He was a 00:02:00musician when he

was growing up. He plays the drums. He's an extremely active guy, and a

gentleman farmer I would say, more as opposed to being a real farmer. My mom was

a stay-at-home mom. She spent some time at the university but she didn't get a

degree. But I would have to say she's one of the most canny people I've ever

met. She's well educated in her own right, an avid reader. You know they were

great people, always encouraged us to go and do what we wanted to go do.

Ren: Did you have any brothers or sisters?

Kevin: I have an older sister named Lisa. She's also a former alumni of Virginia

Tech. She's a veterinarian actually, was in the first class here in the

Veterinary School. And I have a younger brother named Kelly. Kelly, he and I are

best friends, more than just brothers, best friends, and a great guy.

Ren: Thank you. What kind of things did you get into growing up in 00:03:00 Fincastle

with your friends and your siblings?

Kevin: Oh man, there's probably some things I probably can't talk about, but you

know, gosh, I was involved in theater in school. I was involved in wrestling and

football. I can't say that I was a great athlete, but I tried. I was in the

chess club. I just tried to get as involved as many things as I possibly could

get involved it. Plus I enjoyed school. I loved going to school. I had some

great professors or teachers there that you know basically, for example, Arlene

Bell, she taught chemistry and physics and she was a great teacher. Actually

she's probably what gave me the foundation and maybe a conviction that I could

probably be successful from an engineering perspective.

Ren: What were the main economies of Fincastle at that time?

Kevin: It's a rural area and it's economically 00:04:00challenged. From my knowledge it

always has been. The opportunities to get out of Fincastle you know, were kind

of far and few between. Many of my friends are still there. I feel like I'm one

of the very fortunate people to have gotten an education and left and hopefully

I could say that I've been successful.

Ren: Right. When did you first start thinking about college and how did Virginia

Tech come up?

Kevin: I'm obviously quite a bit older than you. My heroes, I remember watching

Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. I remember that so vividly and at that point I

just wanted to be an astronaut. My heroes were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin,

Chris Kraft as a matter of fact, a former alumni of Virginia Tech. I wanted to

be an astronaut and 00:05:00when you look at the pedigree of these individuals and what

their school background was they were all generally naval air test pilots and

they definitely were all aerospace engineers, and I wanted to model myself after

them. The reason why I ended up at Virginia Tech is because while I tried to go

to man of the academies I was never one of the first alternates to be selected.

When I wasn't selected out of high school to go to the academies I started

researching well where could I possibly go that still has that connection to

potentially going into the astronaut corps, which schools in the best country

had the best aerospace engineering schools. And it turns out that I had in my

own backyard one of the best universities literally in the world in aerospace

engineering, and that was Virginia Tech. I had to work like a dog to get into

Virginia Tech at that point, because 00:06:00first of all I had put all my eggs in one

basket, probably the wrong baskets. I had to do a little bit of community

college just to be able to get into Virginia Tech to qualify to get into

Virginia Tech, and that's how I ended up coming.

Ren: How close is Fincastle from Blacksburg?

Kevin: I can make it in an hour.

Ren: Wow. That's pretty close.

Kevin: That's very close, yeah. But you know, while it's a short way

distance-wise, it's a long way away from say Fincastle re Botetourt. You're

coming to this enriched environment with multi-cultural experiences. I can't

remember what the size of the school was when I was here, maybe 20,000,

something like that, from so many different economic and diverse backgrounds is

fantastic, just wanderlust for me.

Ren: Yeah. Do you remember your first memory of campus, what it looked like,

what it smelled like maybe?

Kevin: Well that's a great question. I 00:07:00remember walking onto and seeing the

Drillfield and thinking my gosh, what a massive piece of property this is. And

then beyond that though, even to this day there are still certain smells.

There's the smell of the autumn. There's the Christmas of the winter days. It's

the brutality of the winds in the middle of the winter. I remember those still

today and they stick with you, but they are great memories as well. There are

things that come back to you. When you come to campus it just kind of hits you,

oh, I feel like I'm home again.

Ren: Let's talk a little bit about your freshman year at Virginia Tech. That was 19...?

Kevin: It would have been 1978.

Ren: Where did you live on campus?

Kevin: Gosh, I can't even remember anymore.

Ren: Pritchard, Vawter, Johnson?

Kevin: I want to say it was... 00:08:00I honestly don't remember. One of the guys, Carl,

and I were talking about that yesterday. I still don't remember specifically.

Then I remember living off campus and that was over in Drapers Ghetto, or

Drapers Meadow as it probably should really be called. For a while I rented a

bit with my sister, and then had another roommate. Another friend and I found

another spot and we kind of carried on from there.

Ren: What was the campus culture during that time in the late 1970s and in the

early 1980s?

Kevin: Well, I think it was really, I guess the culture was very competitive. I

think that most of my peers I would say were extremely driven. The engineering

school was quite a challenge to get through. I think it always is. It always

will be, but it was really challenging for me in 00:09:00particular, I thought it was

anyway. There's a huge esprit de corps. I mean we loved all the sports teams. We

weren't very good in basketball. We were pretty okay in football at times. You

know there's a lot of good spirit, you know, I enjoyed it. It was a welcome

environment and it was a positive experience for sure.

Ren: When you entered in your freshman year did you come in as an engineering major?

Kevin: I did, I declared right up front, that's right.

Ren: That was the major you finished with?

Kevin: Correct. Through a lot of perseverance by the way.

Ren: [Chuckles] I was going to say. In this perseverance I'm sure there had to

be a lot of influential professors and advisors that you had here during that

time. I'm sure you have many stories that you probably would like to share.

Kevin: First of 00:10:00all, probably my best professor that I can remember always being

encouraging and wanted to absolutely teach was Dr. Richard Goff. He was a

fantastic professor. I had him for structures class. I had him for kinematics

class as well, and I would say he was really inspirational as a teacher. I had a

couple of other teachers who literally came into the classroom and told us that

their objective is to fail at least half of the class. That's, particularly as a

young man or a young person to have an adult come in and basically tell you that

his objective is to cull you out, that's a tough feeling. So, I've had really

positive experiences. I've had a few negative experiences, but when you blend it

all together the schools is rife with really good teachers that really wanted to

provide a good education, and at the same time 00:11:00make sure that you were a well

taught engineer that could go out into the world and contribute. So it was

discipline-oriented, and I know that I got a great analytical capability as a

result of being here. So I would say the mission was accomplished at that point.

Ren: You talk about good experiences and bad experiences. I want to dive into

those a little bit. What are some of your favorite memories or experiences that

kind of stick out that you most remember?

Kevin: Oh man, I loved working in the, for instance, I loved the lab work that

we did in the wind tunnels. It was great. I mean every single one that we went

into, whether it was the subsonic or the hypersonic wind tunnel, the whole

experimentalism was really really enriching and fun. For me, the theory side of

my education was always challenge. The 00:12:00lab worked definitely helped to cement

what the theory was, but man, I really enjoyed that. They were really great. I

liked doing the chemistry labs. I did appreciate the count courses, so it was a

lot of really good fundamental educational experiences. The things that I really

was challenged with was thermodynamics. I had to really struggle to get through

my senior project. I would say that was the good and the bad. The good part of

the senior project is that I had a great team to work with and we all knew what

each other's capabilities were. We knew that, you know, I was pretty good at

structures and at propulsion for example, and a couple of other guys were great

at air foils and control surfaces. You get a team together and you are able to

actually get a project and deliver it and that was hugely rewarding, and great

to get it past you. You knew you had to get that grade to be able to get out of

the school 00:13:00and it was good.

Ren: What kind of social clubs or events did you take part in?

Kevin: Well, I was primarily involved in KA. I was a Kappa Alpha here. I had a

great bunch of friends. Actually most of them were also in the engineering

school, so a lot of us had to study together and play together. We tried to do

good works in the community together when we could. They were a great bunch of friends.

Ren: Some things, difficult experiences with coursework, and were there any

missing home kind of things that happened or any personal struggles you remember?

Kevin: Truthfully, I didn't really miss home ever. I've always had wanderlust

and that's why I live in the UK now. I've always looked to kind of expand my

horizons. I'm a risk-taker by nature. I think, 00:14:00gosh, I lost my train of thought.

Sorry. Could you give me the last part of the question?

Ren: Just difficult experiences and were there any personal struggles.

Kevin: There were several times when in school where I was very close to giving

up and changing majors. If I revert back to the story I told you about the one

professor who declared his intention is to fail half the class. Well, I was

fortunate to be in the half that failed, and to stay in the progression at that

time if you stopped and had to retake that class you were out of the progression

and therefore you would probably be another year here at the school. And so what

I ended up doing is doubling 00:15:00up the following sequence in the calculus class and

took the same calculus class again and got an A in both of them. But that was

the first time that I had had any struggle at all with anything that had to do

with coursework. High school was easy. It was a breeze, and to get a failing

mark here was first of all stunning. Second of all, I thought oh my God, I'm not

going to be able to get through this. And as I already kind of alluded to, there

were other parts of the aerospace engineering classwork that I struggled with,

which was primarily theory-based, and I remembered long nights thinking man I'm

never going to get this. I just remember, I kind of reflect at that time my

parents basically said, "You know you've taken this on, you're going to finish

it. You've got to go do it." And they kind of instilled that with no matter what

you were involved in through life. 00:16:00And also it's a personal drive. I didn't want

to fail. To be a failure would have been an awful experience, and so you just

suck it up and go at it.

Ren: Had you changed majors do you know what major you would have went to?

Kevin: Oh man, not a clue. I really didn't have...

Ren: Was there a back-up plan?

Kevin: I was just getting ready to say that, I had no back-up plan, none. You

know I had been telling everybody for my entire life I'm going to be an

astronaut, and there was no way that I was not going to finish becoming an

aerospace engineer. That's just kind of how things went.

Ren: Looking at the time that you were here were there any major events that

were playing out on the national stage in terms of news or politics that you can

kind of remember how that was received in Blacksburg?

Kevin: You know, I think the one really that pops out is I remember... 00:17:00Okay, so

the deal with my parents was that as long as I kept my grades up they would help

me with paying through school, because I alluded to A) I was [a KAB] that had a

couple of classes I didn't do that great in, my grades suffered. And so I was

put into a position where I had to find ways to pay for my schooling, and I did

anything. I sang a lounge lizard act. I sold blood. I sold furniture.

Ren: You sold blood? [Laughs]

Kevin: Blood, yeah. You go down and sell blood so they can make plasma that

could then be used for various forms of treatment. If I remember correctly I

think you would get $15 for I want to say it was a pint. I think that's what it

was, and that was a huge amount of money then, right. But anyway, I ended up

getting a job in the, because as I mentioned my sister was part of the vet

school, she got me a job in 00:18:00the veterinary labs and I'm sitting there washing

Erlenmeyer flasks and test tubes and thing that use collectibles. I remember

listening to the radio and I distinctly remember when Ronald Reagan got shot.

That's probably, at that time during my tenure here at school that's the first

thing that I absolutely remembered right then. And I can reflect back, I know

exactly what I was doing at the time I heard that news and it was just an

absolute shock, and it was a shock to the country. And I think the other thing I

would say is also I remember watching the space shuttle land for the first time

ever. It had already gone into space, and I remember sitting in one of my aero

classes and we stopped the lecture and they turned on the TVs and you 00:19:00 could

watch the space shuttle land, and that was huge. So those are probably the two

most extreme events. One is of such an awful feeling that the President has been

shot, and the other one is this huge euphoria of seeing something that's

occurring in my lifetime in the aerospace industry. It was fantastic you know.

Ren: When Reagan was shot do you remember how your classmates and other people

around campus, there was a real, you know, a lot of people didn't know maybe

what would happen, right?

Kevin: We were stunned, absolutely stunned. Of course some of us were old enough

to kind of remember when Robert F. Kennedy was shot. We all probably remembered

when Martin Luther King was shot. We kind of alluded to when JFK was shot, but

in our real memory this is probably the first pivotal event, and you didn't know

what was going to happen for the leadership of the country. At one point you

didn't know who was really leading. 00:20:00Was the President going to survive? It was a

huge turmoil at that point, quite scary actually.

Ren: Absolutely. So once you graduated from Virginia Tech in 1982, a bachelor's

degree in aerospace and ocean engineering, where did your career kind of take

you after that?

Kevin: So I worked in the Department of Defense. I was with the Marine Corps and

was responsible for their 2.75 and 5-inch Zuni rocket programs. I also was then

assigned to the Naval Air Test Center and worked on some of the test protocols

for the Harrier jump jet. It was great and really thrilling. I did that for

about 31/2 years and then went directly into basically working in industry for

United Technologies, still in the aerospace industry. 00:21:00I was fortunate to be part

of the propulsion team for the standard missile program, which is used to

provide carrier air defense. And then subsequently became what was the

foundation for the Patriot Surfaced Air Missile which was used quite effectively

in Israel to knock down incoming missiles. And then I was the program manager

for the, it's called inertial upper stage propulsion system that's used to, at

the time used to take satellite systems using the robot arm from the space

shuttle out the arm then releases the satellite and then the booster motors then

either place it in geosynchronous orbit, or into 00:22:00planetary missions. So I was

the program manager for the booster motors that are used to launch that

satellite system. So the Magellan Probe for example and Voyager were all part of

products that were released using my, I call them 'my', my rocket motors into space.

Ren: Yeah.

Kevin: I tell this story quite often. I told you my desire was to be an

astronaut. Of course I never became an astronaut, but a couple of friends of

mine and I we did cut hair off of each other's head and we spackled it to the

side of one of those rocket motors, so we do have DNA in space and we're quite

proud of that you know.

Ren: Oh, wow. That's so cool.

Kevin: Could have gotten in trouble for it, but it turned out quite harmless at

the end.

Ren: That's awesome. 00:23:00You mentioned before the interview you live in the United

Kingdom. How did you end up there?

Kevin: That's a good question. So the first part of my career roughly nine years

was in the aerospace industry. When I worked at United Technologies I actually

was living in California. And if you reflect back on what was going on in the

Silicon Valley at that time in the late 80s or early 90s, it was the start of

the growth of the semi-conductor industry as we know it today. It was also when

the human geno experiment was going on, and it's also really when the first real

biomedical programs are going on. Being in a slow growth industry at that time,

remember all the defense cuts were being incorporated, so the spending for

defense programs was down. The spending from just 00:24:00commercial air development was

down. So you could see that the, at least at the time you felt that the industry

itself was probably in a long long decline. And yet, literally just over the

hill you can look down into the valley and you can see all this incredible

growth in these other new industries. I had a review with my boss at the time

and basically said I was doing great, here's your raise. And I asked him, "Well,

what do I need to do to be at your level?" His comment to me was, he says, "Well

Kevin we haven't had a vice president of your age since 1964 in technologies."

And so my next question is, "Well does that mean all I have to do is get 00:25:00 older?"

Of course he regretted that, and he said, "Oh no, no, no, we know that we need

to do something for yourself and a couple of others and we're going to put you

on that path and it will be in a couple of years."

Ren: Right.

Kevin: Well for me that was like a light switch and I realized that probably

it's time for me to make a jump. So why the semiconductor industry, and I know

this is a long-winded answer, but I jumped into the semiconductor industry

because it was a high-tech industry with fairly little engineering discipline,

great science, great innovation, but really no product and technical discipline.

I started working for a company at that time that was a market leader in their

space and the management team there taught me how to run a 00:26:00successful capital

equipment business in the semiconductor industry. And then several years later I

had the opportunity to go join a company in the UK. They had great technology,

great products, a great engineering team. Terrible product management, terrible

product marketing, absolute inability to operationally control themselves, but I

knew that they had a basis of something to build upon. And I had been going

through some other challenges in my life at that time and I had an opportunity

to go. And by the way, that's a euphemism for I got divorced, and I needed a

change and I decided to go do it. Here we are 12 years after that decision, 13

years almost, and it is one of the most 00:27:00successful businesses in my industry.

People thought I was nuts for making that change. Why would you leave this

company, Lam Research and go to this other company? Are you nuts? And you know

maybe I was.

Ren: You mentioned you are a risktaker, do you think that kind of played into

taking that risk?

Kevin: For sure it did. Yeah, and wanderlust. I always wanted to see the world

and participate in the world and this gave me that opportunity and it's been wonderful.

Ren: President chief executive officer of SPTS Technologies?

Kevin: SPTS Technologies, that's right.

Ren: And they are just a global semiconductor and micro electronic device

manufacturing headquartered in the United Kingdom, so there you go.

Kevin: That's it, exactly. Yeah.

Ren: I do want to mention MBA in International Business for American University.

Kevin: Yes, that's right.

Ren: What was the impetus to pursue that degree?

Kevin: That's a great question. So the reason why I decided to do that is 00:28:00I felt

like while I had a great engineering degree, of course I did, but the

understanding of business and the skillset that one needs to be able to run a

business, and the finance people they can intimidate you if you let them, right,

so I kind of felt like I needed to get some of the business skills into my

repertoire. And in insight I chose to go to the American University and get an

MBA in International Business and it was great. I found the coursework quite

easy. I think it's also for by virtue of having spent so much time here at Tech

studying and studying and studying relentlessly. It was quite an interesting and

easy degree to go achieve, and it gave me a broader more well-rounded view of

various other disciplines in business. It was 00:29:00 great.

Ren: Kind of get back, ask you a couple of questions here about Virginia Tech,

which is obviously why we're here and why you're here on campus. If someone

simply says the words Virginia Tech what's the first thing you think of?

Kevin: Always the first thing I think about are the wonderful people, the staff,

not just the faculty but the staff and their desire to participate in the world.

That's the first thing I think of. The second thing I think of is the human

spirit that's here, and Tech has gone through a number of challenges. Anyway,

it's overcome a lot of difficult times and has always stuck together as a

community and I really appreciate that as a 00:30:00former, or as an alumni, as a former

student. I think that's probably the first thing I think about. The second thing

I think about is how great the fundamentals, the education fundamentals are

outstanding here. I've got a very very good education. It has allowed me to

leave Fincastle, Virginia. It has allowed me to go see the world. It's allowed

me to achieve most of my dreams, and that's purely down to having gone to

Virginia Tech. I'm sure of that. So those are the first two main thoughts that

come to mind for me.

Ren: Are you involved with Virginia Tech in ways? So there was a Gallup study a

couple of years ago and it said Virginia Tech in comparison to other

universities their alumni-base has this high high dedication to the University.

And I know in the past few years gifts to 00:31:00engineering and to Student Affairs,

what kind of spurred your interest into donating and giving back to your alma mater?

Kevin: Well, it's a little bit to what I alluded to a few minutes ago. My

education and my experience here at Virginia Tech allowed me to probably go

places that I wouldn't have gone before. I could easily still be in Fincastle,

Virginia for example and this afforded me the opportunity to go do that and I am

forever grateful for that. Even when I couldn't afford it I've always for the

past 30 more years have given monetarily back to the school. I just happened to

have been fortunate enough to be able to give more 00:32:00later. That's certainly one

aspect of it, but I also from a philanthropy perspective that's one part of it.

The other part of it is I like coming back here and interacting with the

students. I like hearing what they are doing. I like encouraging them to go try

and doing different things. I've been fortunate enough to have been asked to

give a couple of lectures here to the students and I find it exhilarating. I

mean it's fantastic. I don't want to just give monetarily. I want to give in

many other ways as I possibly can, so I've been able to do that.

Ren: As a faculty chair in the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering and

then the Department that bears your name from this, that's wonderful, thank you.

I want to ask 00:33:00you kind of changes that you've seen over time. When you graduated

in 1982 this campus looked much different than it does today. What other changes

have you seen maybe both big and small?

Kevin: Oh man, there's so many. Obviously, the infrastructure is so much better.

There's so many how do I pick them? Okay, when I heard that Virginia Tech was

rated as the best food university in the world or in the United States or

something like that, all I could think back was that can't be true, because the

food that we had was pretty much gray matter that was served on a tray. You know

so I'm thinking that must be some sort of fictitious rumor. And then I had a

chance to go and eat in some of the places and you go, "Oh, this food is really

good," so that's one thing. That's a huge change.

Ren: Hibachi and everything, right.

Kevin: Yeah. What else? Okay, the idea about that I May Serve, the motto of the

school. It's always been there, 00:34:00but it's actually being lived now. That wasn't

really the way it was when I was here, so that whole enriching environment

didn't exist when I was here in the late '70s and early '80s. To see that really

in motion and as a body of work is awesome. That's another thing, and I think

the third thing is when you look at the educational experience that the kids get

here today, I know from the sophomore, if I'm thinking about the engineering

school, I know from the sophomore year onwards, and in some cases the freshman

year onwards, they are already working in teams. They are already learning how

to interact together and identify what he or she is good at, where are their

particular skills, what can we take advantage of, how can we deliver a better 00:35:00product. And that's a very different experience than what I had. And I think

maybe the fourth thing I would say is that I think the kids and the faculty are

far, the faculty in particular are far more oriented towards helping the

students to be successful and wanting to make sure that they actually learn, as

opposed to having to learn it for yourself and get by. And those fundamentally

changes, it changes the entire experience that kids have today. I wish I could

come back. That's how I feel. I wish I could be a student again today.

Ren: If you ever get any free time.

Kevin: Yeah, exactly. Right.

Ren: I'm sure we would welcome you back. Yeah, the ethics of care and teaching

and with faculty that really care, students see that they care, that 00:36:00means the

world obviously. You kind of mentioned a little bit about some changes, but are

there any kind of changes that you would like to see, or any advice that maybe

you could give to the deans and the president provost or whatever?

Kevin: Yeah. I think there's a couple of things that I would say. First of all,

no disrespect to the... I should say it this way, the outreach to alumni has

gotten better and better over the last say five to ten years. For the first 20

years that I was out of the University I never heard from the Alumni

Association, never. It was my giving as opposed to somebody soliciting or asking

me, "Hey, would you be willing to give?" That's different, and I still think

that is something that Tech can continue to improve upon." I think the other

thing is that 00:37:00I personally like to see, I would like to see that there's an

element of a requirement for the faculty, all of them across the board to have

some level of service factored into the way they are rated for tenure for

example. I think that that will be an interesting extra push to the

organization, to live the whole Ut Prosim motto that I May Service, and I think

that needs to be embodied across the board. So those are the two things that I

would say, but the trajectory of the school is incredible. I'm ever so proud of

it. I'm really proud to be a Hokie, and I'm also proud that I found an industry

that actually people know more about Virginia Tech than I would have expected

them to know. It has 00:38:00immediate credibility. It is equally good as some of the

biggest schools that are in the nation, and the reputation is suburb.

Ren: I want to ask you this, and I'm sure you are probably asked this a lot,

what advice would you give to those sophomore or juniors or seniors, AEO, right,

students, what kind of advice would you give to them?

Kevin: I think the first thing I would say is don't give up, persevere. Just

stick with it. There are going to be tough times in it. There will be really fun

times. Just press on. And then I would also tell them, beyond that I would say

if you're struggling the faculty you have here wants you to be successful. Don't

be intimidated by them, ask them for help. Ask your peers for help because they

will help you too and it never hurts to say, "I don't get this. I don't

understand this 00:39:00particular feature that we're trying to teach." I would

definitely recommend that the kids go do that. I didn't do that and I should

have in retrospect, so that would be the first thing I would tell them to do,

never give up. Go ask for help.

Ren: In your time and in the industry and after you graduated did you have a lot

of experience working with Virginia Tech graduates, and was there a common

thread you saw throughout?

Kevin: You know, I would say in the aerospace industry, yes. There are a number

of Hokies that are out there clearly and it's a very small community. The

aerospace industry in itself is a small community generally and you run across

Hokies and of course from Purdue or whatever, but we're everywhere. And, you

find yourself gravitating towards each other and you compare stories about who

did you have for the professors and what 00:40:00classes were good and all this, and you

basically immediately have a bond. I found that quite effective and quite good.

When I switched over into the semiconductor Capital Equipment industry in

particular, there are virtually very very few, very very few Virginia Tech grads

that are in my industry. It may be rare and you can probably count them on a

couple of hands. What I've tried to do and we've had a few, I won't say it's a

lot, we've had a few Hokies that have come and worked at SPTS on a student

experience activity. I would like to see that happen more and more, and I would

like to foster that, because it isn't an area of focus for the school at this point.

Ren: Yeah. In doing some research, I read that you were talking about your

parents and you said, "They instilled in me the values of 00:41:00hard work,

perseverance, and the importance of education." Is that the advice that you give

to new engineers coming up and working with even your company? Do you try to

kind of instill those same values?

Kevin: For sure. You know for me there's no real substitution for hard work.

Instantaneous gratification, that's really not something that happens in real

life generally speaking. It takes work and you've got to stick with it, and

you've got to work together. You have to be educated about a particular topic,

but you have to stick to it. You have to persevere, and I think there's no

substitution for that.

Ren: What would you like people to know about you that maybe they don't?

Kevin: That's a tough one.

Ren: You can throw humility out the window right now.

Kevin: 00:42:00Well, I would hope that people would identify me as a leader, somebody

who helped them do better in whatever they are doing. If I think about the work

environment I would hope that I would inspire them to do better than they think

they can be. I don't know that I'm identified that way, but I would like to be,

and I aspire to live up to that ideal.

Ren: What do you think makes a good leader?

Kevin: Well, I think there's a couple of different things. I think one is that 00:43:00you do inspire other people to do better than they can and they think that they

can. The other is you're not going to ask anybody to do anything that you're not

willing to do yourself. There's this whole adage about leading from the front; I

absolutely believe that. You have to be somebody who leads from the front. You

can't be behind the scenes generally speaking and be successful, because if

you're asking people to work enormous hours and sacrifice their personal time

and lives to be successful for the business and you're not willing to do that

too, I think that's just not a proper example. So I would like to be identified

that way. I hope that people know that I drive. I'm a driven person and I drive

for success, but I think I'm fair 00:44:00and I would hope everybody would say, "Oh he's

a fair guy," and never did anything to advantage of them, that sort of thing.

Ren: What are you passionate about?

Kevin: Man, I love...gosh, there's so many things that I really enjoy. I love

personally to scuba dive. I love to run. I like doing adventure sports. I've got

a great partner and we've got a little boy and he's a joy. You know that's a

hobby, more than a hobby, that's a life. Yeah. I get up every day, I enjoy going

to work. I like working. It's like I look forward to whatever challenge is going

to happen that day, because there's going to be some you know. I'm pretty

blessed that way.

Ren: Can you walk us through kind of quickly like a normal day, someone in your 00:45:00position and with your job title? What time you get up. Walk us through a basic

normal day.

Kevin: Yeah, a basic day for me, I'm normally up around 5, 5:30 in the morning

and I go for a run. That's the first thing I do. That's my win, or do some sort

of workout in the morning. That's my win for a day. That way I know I've done

something successfully for the day. I tell a lot of people, "Get your win.

Whatever it is, get out of bed. Make your bed. Do something to get your win."

And then, because there could be forward steps and backward steps during the

entire day, so I'm up at 5:30. I do try and get about an hour's worth of a run

in. I'm usually at the office no later than say 7:30 to 7:45. My normal day

lasts until 6, 6:30-7. Depending upon the day, I still enjoy getting involved in

the 00:46:00engineering projects and understanding what is happening on a particular

project. I will find a way to do the whole Hewlett Packard management by walking

around. I spend a lot of time asking people what are they doing, what are they

working on, why are they working on it and what do they think. Is it going to

work, is it not. I still find that quite interesting. You know there will be

some operational things. We will be doing some meetings with the finance teams.

We will talk about what the revenue generation looks like, but those are some of

the tick box sort of activities of the day for me. Also, I constantly have

presentation material that I'm preparing either to take to customers or for

internal work as well. I spend a lot of time with our customers, a lot of time

with them. They are the bread and butter of the company and without them we just

wouldn't be a company, so I spend a lot of time dealing with 00:47:00them. And then I

would say late in the evening before I leave work typically I'm on the phone

with the sales team in America. If I think about the hours you guys are minus 6

for me, or minus 5, depending on where I am. So I can spend time with them in

the evenings and talk about what interactions they have, what do they need from

the company, what do they need from my engineering team, what do they need from

the operations teams. So some of it's firefighting. Some of it's trying to kind

of trying to plan for longer term events. That's a very typical day for me, but

it's pretty much go go go from the start of the day. I beg for my cup of coffee.

I need that in the morning. Lunch time, I guess I do take lunch. I find various

people within the cafeteria to 00:48:00sit down with. Sometimes it makes them

uncomfortable, but that's a way for me to understand what's going on. You know,

more so than here in the US. In the UK it's quite clickish, so you will see the

guys that are in one engineering team we're sitting together and another from a

different product line sitting together, and the operations guy are in a

completely different area.

Ren: Like a high school cafeteria.

Kevin: Totally. Totally like a high school cafeteria. That's a perfect analogy;

I'm going to use that, and so I just kind of barge my way into each one of those

groups and just start a conversation. At first people are a little

uncomfortable, but then afterwards they are like, "Oh okay. What do you want to

tell him now?" You can see them kind of thinking what are we going to tell him

today? It's great. That's what I look forward to. I like that human interaction.

Ren: What time does your day usually wrap-up?

Kevin: I usually leave the office typically around 6:30 would be a normal day

for me. I get home 00:49:00and we're all tied to these damn electronic devices, right.

So you still get home and you eat dinner or whatever, and the next thing you

know you're back on your smart phone and you're on your PC. You're back to the

email treadmill. That's what it feels like you know. Yeah. Hopefully in my case

I get to go to bed around 10:30 or 11, something like that.

Ren: Wow. Awesome. An interesting life.

Kevin: By the way, I'm not a good role model for that. You know all the studies

now are saying that no matter who you are you need to get at least 7 hours of

sleep. It's true, and otherwise it leads to so many health issues, and that's an

area that I'm personally trying to maybe reset my own internal expectations for.

Ren: I was having a conversation with my wife a couple of weeks ago, I have a 10

and a 7-year-old, we were talking about hours of sleep and trying to get as much

sleep as we can and trying to be a little 00:50:00healthier, even at our younger age I

guess you could say.

Kevin: It's hugely important.

Ren: Yeah, it is. Last few questions and I'll let you go because I know you have

other events to attend to. I really appreciate you sitting down with VT Stories

and talking with us. What does Virginia Tech mean to you?

Kevin: Virginia Tech for me, for me, if I look back on when I was starting to go

to school Virginia Tech for me was hope. Sorry 00:51:00[emotional]. And today it still

is, so I think that's a good word, because that gives you the idea you have a

chance to achieve your goals, your aspirations. You can achieve and it's a

wonderful community that particularly today, that you can take that with you in

life. That's the way I look at it. That's why I like coming back. I have a huge

affinity for the school and I'm quite emotional about it actually as you can tell.

Ren: Yeah. 00:52:00I share that you're saying emotions and feelings as an alumnus and

someone who works here now. I feel the same way, and that's why I love asking

that question, because that's when you get to the core of how much this

University means to you as a student and as someone who has been philanthropic

and has been successful in their career. It all points back to the same place

and that's what I love about this place.

Kevin: For me I'm so proud to have been here. I'm so proud to be associated with

it. I proudly display my degree from Virginia Tech. You know, I'm forever

grateful to have had the chance to come here. The truth is maybe I probably in

this day and age I probably would not have been able to qualify to come to

school here. At least that's the way I feel right now. And when I look at the

kids that are here they are so smart. They are so accomplished. Wow, I'm just so

impressed by them.

Ren: You said that you are inspired 00:53:00by the school motto and a gift that you gave

to the University about Ut Prosim, I think engineering students and other alumni

can look at your story and hear this story and be inspired by you, and I really

appreciate you taking the time to sit with us. The last question is is there

anything you would like to say that I didn't ask or anything? It's an open floor

for you to say whatever you like.

Kevin: No. I would say, look, to anybody who does listen to this, enjoy the

experience here for sure. Take everything you can away from it, every experience

possible, not just the academic side. Be part of the Greek movement or be part

of the marching band. Take advantage of all the things that are here that you

can participate in, that's #1, because it's such an enriching experience and you

owe it to yourself, because you will never have that chance again, ever. 00:54:00 So

that's one thing, and then I would say for folks that have already left the

University I hope that they can reflect upon what a great time they had here,

and maybe the lessons, again, not the educational lessons, but just the human

life education that they received here, and I hope they can carry that with them

all the way through, and just enjoy their careers, have a great career.

Ren: Thank you.

Kevin: Thank you.

Ren: I will say Kevin Crofton, class of 1982. Thank you so much sir.

Kevin: Go Hokies.

Ren: Go Hokies. Thank you very much.

Kevin: Thank you very much.