Arthur D. Crino was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1924. He joined the U.S. Navy during World War II and rose in the ranks to become a Seaman First Class while serving on a submarine chaser in the Pacific. In 1951, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and soon became a Licensed Professional Engineer in both Oregon and California.

He began his professional career with the Allis-Chalmers Corporation in California. Ten years later, the firm erected a new facility in Oregon and Art headed back to the Northwest. Eventually, Siemens Corporation bought Allis-Chalmers and when the new owner moved the plant out of Oregon in 1988, Art left and formed his own Pacific Air Switch Corporation. Functioning as chairman and president of this hugely successful operation, he sold it in 1997 and retired fully in 2003.

Art and his wife, Sally, joined The John Birch Society in 1960. Appointed to the Council in 1999, he is also a member of the Society’s Executive Committee. An active member of the Society’s Speakers Bureau, he and Sally reside in the Portland suburb of Tigard.