Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Neil Morgan loves Dick Cramer, IMED, and IVAC

Lunch at the Grant Grill

Most everybody likes to see his name in the paper, and Tribune editor Neil Morgan certainly takes care of his old friend Dick Cramer in that regard. When Cramer's medical instruments firm, IMED, was sold to Warner-Lambert last June for $465 million cash, the news was announced in a front-page, banner-headlined story in both the news rack green sheet and the home edition — and was followed a day later by another front-page feature on Cramer himself. Since then, Morgan has written about Cramer more than two dozen times in his daily column on the front page of the Tribune's Metro section. He's told us when Cramer ate dinner at Gustav Anders restaurant to celebrate the sale (June 14), remodeled his oceanfront La Jolla home (June 28). received the news that the board of directors of both firms had approved the sale (July 22), celebrated again at the Tambo de Oro restaurant (August 23), and purchased a new Citation II jet (December 7). He's also told us when Cramer spent $300 on an unseen art canvas (December 23), moved into new offices in the Wells Fargo Bank Building downtown (February 2), and new to Manhattan, along with twenty of his IMED chums to celebrate his fiftieth birthday (March 31). And two weeks ago, when Cramer and his wife Alice were slightly injured in the crash of his private plane in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (he cracked two of his vertebrae and she her tailbone), the news made the Tribune's front page. Prominently displayed near the top of the page, the fourteen-inch-long article carried the rather ominous headline, "San Diego Businessman Injured In Plane Crash," featured a photograph of Cramer, and delved a bit into the history of IMED — even though the injuries were so minor that Dick and Alice Cramer were both well enough to take the plane's pilot out to dinner the following night.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The Morgan-Cramer connection? It goes back about eleven years to when Cramer had just lost control of IVAC — another medical instruments firm he had founded - in a proxy battle. The Tribune carried a series of articles about Cramer's predicament, and Cramer and Morgan (then only the Trib's columnist and travel editor) became friends. A short while thereafter, they were having lunch together at the Grant Grill downtown. "He began telling me about this new company he was putting together," Morgan recalls. "He said he wasn't sure what he was going to call it but that it had to have an i in it. I ask.ed him 'What type of business it would be, and be said he believed the future for medical technology still looked bright and he would stay m that field. So I said, 'Why not call it IMED?'"

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will Trump’s Baja resort be built after all?

Long-stalled development sparks art exhibit, gets new life
Next Article

Issa aide collaborates with Ukrainians

Carlsbad's Tracy Slepcevic, Warrior Mom, and her ties to RFK, Jr.

Most everybody likes to see his name in the paper, and Tribune editor Neil Morgan certainly takes care of his old friend Dick Cramer in that regard. When Cramer's medical instruments firm, IMED, was sold to Warner-Lambert last June for $465 million cash, the news was announced in a front-page, banner-headlined story in both the news rack green sheet and the home edition — and was followed a day later by another front-page feature on Cramer himself. Since then, Morgan has written about Cramer more than two dozen times in his daily column on the front page of the Tribune's Metro section. He's told us when Cramer ate dinner at Gustav Anders restaurant to celebrate the sale (June 14), remodeled his oceanfront La Jolla home (June 28). received the news that the board of directors of both firms had approved the sale (July 22), celebrated again at the Tambo de Oro restaurant (August 23), and purchased a new Citation II jet (December 7). He's also told us when Cramer spent $300 on an unseen art canvas (December 23), moved into new offices in the Wells Fargo Bank Building downtown (February 2), and new to Manhattan, along with twenty of his IMED chums to celebrate his fiftieth birthday (March 31). And two weeks ago, when Cramer and his wife Alice were slightly injured in the crash of his private plane in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (he cracked two of his vertebrae and she her tailbone), the news made the Tribune's front page. Prominently displayed near the top of the page, the fourteen-inch-long article carried the rather ominous headline, "San Diego Businessman Injured In Plane Crash," featured a photograph of Cramer, and delved a bit into the history of IMED — even though the injuries were so minor that Dick and Alice Cramer were both well enough to take the plane's pilot out to dinner the following night.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The Morgan-Cramer connection? It goes back about eleven years to when Cramer had just lost control of IVAC — another medical instruments firm he had founded - in a proxy battle. The Tribune carried a series of articles about Cramer's predicament, and Cramer and Morgan (then only the Trib's columnist and travel editor) became friends. A short while thereafter, they were having lunch together at the Grant Grill downtown. "He began telling me about this new company he was putting together," Morgan recalls. "He said he wasn't sure what he was going to call it but that it had to have an i in it. I ask.ed him 'What type of business it would be, and be said he believed the future for medical technology still looked bright and he would stay m that field. So I said, 'Why not call it IMED?'"

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

O’side Tree Lighting & Gift Market, Holiday Lights at the Museum, The Elovaters and Little Stranger

Events December 5-December 6, 2024
Next Article

Issa aide collaborates with Ukrainians

Carlsbad's Tracy Slepcevic, Warrior Mom, and her ties to RFK, Jr.
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader