Crawford Gordon Jr.

Crawford Gordon Jr.
(L–R) Sir Roy Dobson and Crawford Gordon Jr. Note: Avro Arrow in background, c. 1957
Born	(1914-12-22)22 December 1914 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died	26 January 1967(1967-01-26) (aged 52) New York City
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Business entrepreneur, aviation
Known for	Avro Canada, Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow

Crawford Gordon Jr. (26 December 1914 – 26 January 1967) was a leader of wartime defense production in Canada under Minister of Munitions and Supply C.D. Howe during the Second World War. He was perhaps one of the greatest industrialists and business minds in Canadian history; Gordon bought two companies and held one CEO position, but eventually lost it all.

Gordon was born in Winnipeg in 1914. He was the first child of Crawford Gordon Sr. and Ethel Flora Fortune, the latter of whom had survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

Gordon was one of C. D. Howe's "boys", or "dollar-a-year men" during the Second World War, helping the government organize industrial resources to meet the needs of wartime production and resource management.

In October 1951, Howe arranged for Gordon, now with the Department of Defense Production, to take over as President and General Manager of A. V. Roe Canada ("Avro Canada"), a subsidiary of A.V. Roe and Company of the U.K., to assist with problems in development and production of the CF-100 Canuck fighter interceptor. Under Gordon's encouragement to Avro's designers, Avro offered to design and build the new supersonic jet interceptor identified by the Canadian Chiefs of Staff as needed to counter a Soviet Union bomber threat. In 1953 the government commenced funding of a study for what would first be the design for the C104 delta-wing aircraft, and eventually the CF-105 Arrow.

During Crawford's tenure in the 1950s, A.V. Roe Canada was restructured into two separate divisions: Avro Aircraft Ltd. and Orenda Engines, both based at Malton Airport. The total labour force of both aviation companies reached 15,000 in 1958. During the same period, A.V. Roe Canada also purchased a number of companies, including Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, Canada Car and Foundry (1957) and Canadian Steel Improvement Ltd. By 1958, A. V. Roe Canada was an industrial giant with over 50,000 employees in a far-flung empire of 44 companies involved in coal mining, steel making, railway rolling stock, aircraft and aero-engine manufacturing, as well as computers and electronics. The companies generated annual sales in the $450 million range, ranking A.V. Roe Canada as the third largest corporation in Canada.