People come; people go.   Transitions are a way of life for American businesses. The RV industry is no exception; however, when the chairman of the board of Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc., decides to officially retire and sell his 5.2 million shares of stock in the company he founded, it's big news.

John Crean's exit from Fleetwood culminated a year of changes in the top management levels at the company. Elden Smith, senior vice president - RV Group, retired in 1997. Under Smith's guidance, Fleetwood became the number-one recreational vehicle producer in America. Smith was replaced by Dick Parks. On the manufactured housing side, Jon Nord, senior vice president - Manufactured Housing Group also retired in 1997. Under Nord's guidance, Fleetwood became the number-one manufactured housing producer in America. Nord was replaced by Mallory Smith.

In addition Nelson Potter was appointed executive vice president, operations, with specific responsibility for the housing group, the recreational vehicle group, the supply subsidiaries and the company's administrative and human resource functions.

Coinciding with Crean's decision to leave in January, Glenn F. Kummer, formerly president and chief operating officer, was named chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer. And then Potter, who barely had time to break in his new chair, was named to fill the positions vacated by Kummer. So today at Fleetwood we see a lot of familiar people sitting in unfamiliar seats. And the man in the driver's seat is Glenn Kummer.

And while there does seem to be a lot of significant changes within a short period of time, the impact of these changes should not have a dramatic effect on Fleetwood's success. Why? Because Glenn Kummer has been virtually acting as the top executive for a lot of years. He's the anchor.

Mr. Crean has held the titles, but Kummer was making the day-to-day operating decisions. John Crean made no secret of the fact that he hated office work, so he turned that part of the business over to Kummer several years ago.

In 1989, RV News interviewed Crean. He said his first love was developing product, not running his multimillion dollar corporation. He said, "I don't know what people do at desks. Product has always been my long suit."

In a February interview Kummer acknowledged to RV News that it was probably true that the Fleetwood executive staff have been running the company for some time. He said, "I stayed in contact with Mr. Crean, however, the decision making has not been with myself, but it's been with the management team. That management team has been creating the guidance and then always sharing their thinking with the board.

"Fleetwood has so many good, qualified people from the plant level up through the operating groups -- excellent people. The basic policies of the company, the compensation rewards, and other things have helped us maintain a longevity among our people -- so we have good people.

"When Elden left, we picked Dick Parks to take that position. He had been in the motorhome division for almost two years and was ready to come over and take Elden's spot. When you go to a new chair, you learn by experience. Things look a little different and things transpire differently. But he was ready for it.

"Then we made the change over in the housing side. When Jon Nord left, Mallory Smith came in. Mallory has been with the company almost 30 years and knows the system so he's done a great job in the transition."

We asked Kummer, why now? What were Crean's reasons for retiring.

Kummer said, "He said that he had been doing a lot of reading where too many founders stayed on too long; they don't stay current so they fall behind. I think that was his primary motive for making the decision that he made.

"But another part of it was that Mr. Crean got to the position in his life, he's 72-years-old, where he wanted to do some estate planning. He is a benevolent person as far as charities so he and his wife Donna wanted to work on that aspect of his estate."

RV News observed that Crean's innovative genius with product will be missed. He personally has been responsible for many of the industry-changing developments in RVs over the past 40 years. One of his latest contributions was the development of the basement model motorhome, the highly successful Bounder.  continued