Noel Crichton AM, one of the towering figures in the Australian print industry passed away this weekend.
Crichton played a huge part in the progress of the print industry from the 1960s onwards, when he led various disparate industry associations to form one body, which is now the PIAA.
His passion though was print industry training and education, and he championed training reform, particularly in the apprenticeship system, which he took out of the time of indentures and into the modern era.
Incredibly although he was 87 years old he was still current chairman of the National Print Industry Training Council, NIPTC.
Crichton entered the industry as a management trainee with Sydney print business Simmonds in 1946, rising through the ranks to become managing director in 1960. He stayed for another 16 years before leaving to form his own consultancy in 1976.
He was heavily involved with the NIPTC for several decades, and pushed through many reforms.
He received his Order of Australia (AM) in the Queens’s Birthday honours in 1994.
Friend and peer Neil Mulvaney says, “Noel was fantastic for the print industry. He was dedicated to its development, and there is no doubt the industry was and is much better for his input.”
Noel Crichton’s funeral will be this Friday February 28th at 3pm at the Ann Wilson Chapel in Mona Vale.
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