CREW honors the late Carl Cronan

CREW Tampa Bay, an organization of women in commercial real estate, has honored the late Carl Cronan, former Tampa Bay editor of the Business Review, by creating a media excellence award in his name.

“He was so well thought of by everyone,” says Sue Fern, executive director of CREW Tampa Bay. Cronan was known for his hard work, for his conscientious approach in verifying story details, and for his sense of humor, says Fern. “He was lost too young. We wanted to honor him in some way.”

Cronan's career spanned 25 years, and he won awards for breaking news and enterprise stories as he worked for newspapers in Florida, Alabama and Georgia.

One of his last awards, in 2011, was from the Florida Press Association, for business writing. Regionally, he had worked for the Lakeland Ledger and the Tampa Bay Business Journal before joining the Business Review. His expertise was in commercial real estate coverage.

A native of Pleasant Grove, Ala., Cronan died in 2011 after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 47. He worked until the day before his death, colleagues reported.

The first recipient of the award, presented recently, was Karen McKinney, director of marketing for Elements, a Tampa architecture and interior design company.