William J. Avery, former CEO and chairman of the board at Crown Cork & Seal Co., philanthropist, and Philadelphia booster, has died at 82
His 12-year tenure as top executive featured worldwide expansion, reorganization, and a tripling of revenue. A native of Chicago, he also championed many Philadelphia businesses and charities.
William J. Avery, 82, of Gwynedd Valley, former chief executive officer and chairman of the board at Crown Cork & Seal Co., philanthropist, and enthusiastic Philadelphia booster, died Sunday, July 17, of a heart condition at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
During Mr. Avery’s tenure as top executive at Crown, now known as Crown Holdings Inc., from 1989 to 2001, the Philadelphia-based company became the world’s largest manufacturer of bottle caps and one of the two largest makers of beverage cans. Industrious, innovative, and outspoken throughout his 42-year career with the firm, Mr. Avery helped grow revenue from less than $2 billion in 1989 to more than $7 billion in 2000.
He told Financial World magazine in 1993, “When I became [CEO] in 1989, I had to light a fire and get the company going.”
His strategy of acquiring dozens of other companies, entering into joint ventures around the world, expanding from metal to plastic products, and restructuring its operations allowed Crown to employ more than 17,500 workers at 150 plants in 43 countries in the mid-1990s and resume cash dividends to shareholders for the first time in 40 years.
In an online interview with Temple University’s Fox School of Business after his retirement, Mr. Avery said: “I was a trainee with the company at the time, and one of the questions in a questionnaire we had to fill out asked, ‘What do you want to be doing in five years?’ I filled in, ‘President of Crown Cork & Seal.’”
His daughter Sheryl Hearn said: “He loved to work, and he loved his job.” Former Mayor Ed Rendell said: “He was the epitome of a great corporate leader.”
In 1995, Mr. Avery shook hands with Rendell as the company announced plans to reject competing offers from across the country and build a new $21.3 million corporate headquarters in Northeast Philadelphia. “There was at least one Southern state that would give you the building and turn over the keys,” Mr. Avery told the Daily News. “But I personally wanted to stay in Philadelphia. I’ve been here 21 years.”
Mr. Avery started working for Crown as a 19-year-old management trainee in Chicago in 1959. After attending night classes in industrial management at the University of Chicago, he proposed new quality and inventory control measures and was promoted to Crown’s plant manager in Cleveland at 28, central division manager of manufacturing at 31, and vice president of division sales at 32, the youngest division officer in the company.
In 1974, he was transferred to Philadelphia to become corporate vice president for sales. He was 40 when CEO John F. Connelly named him president and chief operating officer in 1980. He became CEO in 1989 when Connelly fell ill and was chairman of the board from 1990 until his retirement in 2001.
“It’s about creating the right attitude,” he said in his Temple interview about getting promoted. “And once you do that, you’ll find a lot of opportunity for growth.”
Known for his sincerity, unaffected manner, and advocacy for Philadelphia businesses and charities, Mr. Avery answered his own business phone calls for years and was more comfortable in blue jeans and T-shirts than fitted suits and dress shoes.
He supported his adopted hometown by aiding in the construction of the Regional Performing Arts Center, now the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Constitution Center. He championed Project HOME, an advocacy group for the homeless, and cofounded Philadelphia Area Accelerated Manufacturing Education Inc., an economic development organization.
He helped secure funding for the international business administration program at Temple’s Fox School of Business and served on the boards of the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia, Historic Philadelphia Inc., Lincoln National Corp., Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Franklin Institute, and Gwynedd Mercy University. He received Temple University’s 2000 Musser Award for excellence in leadership.
Born June 20, 1940, in Chicago, Mr. Avery met Sharon Bajorek when they were teenagers, and they married in 1959, and had daughters Sheryl and Michele and son Martin. A devout Catholic, he became friends with Pope John Paul II while on business in Rome, was inducted into the pontiff’s Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1995, and made a knight commander of the order in 1998.
He liked to fish and hunt in the Pocono Mountains, owned 45 cars at one point, and traded tales of the road with fellow auto enthusiast Jay Leno. He traveled with his family and was relaxed and happy at home. “He made sure we had everything we needed and experienced everything we could,” Hearn said.
His wife said: “He was a very caring family-type person. He liked to help people.”
In addition to his wife and daughter Sheryl, Mr. Avery is survived by five grandchildren, a sister, and other relatives. Son Martin, daughter Michele, and a sister died earlier.
Services were private.
Donations in his name may be made to the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Office of Institutional Advancement, 333 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19111.