Jonathan Townley Crane

Jonathan Townley Crane, 72, of Bostwick, GA, passed away on December 17, 2025, after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer. 

Jon was born February 7, 1953, in St. Louis, MO, the son of Robert Kellogg Crane and Mildred Ellen Price Crane. 

Jon graduated from Clarke Central High School in 1971, before attending the Georgis Institute of Technology, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture.

Jon married his high school sweetheart, Lucinda Kay Sheffield (Cindy), on June 7, 1975. They celebrated their 50th anniversary this June.

Jon was a man of many passions. He loved music of all types. The first concert he attended was The Beatles at Fenway Park in Chicago; the last he attended was that of his friend’s band, The Retrograde, in Atlanta. He took his children to more music festivals than they can count. He played the guitar, bass, and drums, and was in bands such as The Royalists (in high school), the Lab Lizards (with colleagues at CUH2A), and The Impact All-Star Band (with colleagues at HDR). He enjoyed watching sports, rooting for his alma mater, the Georgia Tech YellowJackets; the favorite team of most of his neighbors, the Georgia Bulldogs; and the many Pittsburgh teams he grew to love while visiting his son. He was also an accomplished fencer, a sport he enjoyed competing in alongside his wife and children. Jon loved to travel centered on genealogy, tracing his family history across Civil War battlefields, New Jersey churches, and County Mayo farmsteads. Jon was also an author who wrote family histories, columns for trade publications, and a novel, Each had their Reasons.

Jon loved his job. He was a nationally and internationally renowned architect, known throughout the profession for his expertise in planning for all types of science, his commitment to design that improves people’s lives, and his unwavering grace and patience mentoring his colleagues. Jon was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, the highest recognition possible. He was instrumental in the implementation of research environments for the safe study of infectious diseases. Jon was involved in the design of over 100 high-containment laboratories in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. He was the innovative force behind the world’s largest, safest, most secure state-of-the-art containment facility, the Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory at CDC in Atlanta. He also was a mentor and friend to generations of planners and designers, bringing his limitless knowledge and enthusiasm to everyone in everything he did. Some of the most important projects that Jon contributed to include Buildings 18 and 23 at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Building at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MI, The Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory at Georgia Tech, and the Aaron Diamond Research Center in NYC, the first facility specifically designed to help scientists working against the clock to develop an AIDs vaccine.

And Jon loved his family – his greatest pleasure in life was granting every wish any of them ever had. Jon is survived by his wife, Cindy; sister Barbara; children Chip (and wife Melissa), & Christina (and husband Nathan); and grandchildren Lucy and Eric. 
 

The graveside service will be held on Saturday, December 20, 2025 at 2 PM at the Bostwick Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at 2:30 PM at Bostwick United Methodist Church followed by a reception.

Memorials may be made to Bostwick United Methodist Church or to the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab at https://www.sralab.org/give-now.

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