Craine's papers cover his career from the beginning of his professional life as a researcher for the U.S. Government in the field of natural resources management in 1938, to his retirement as a professor emeritus of the University of Michigan in 1974. The series included Biographical Materials, Education, Professional Life, and Papers and Publications.
Born on August 16, 1908 in Geneva, Ohio, Lyle E. Craine received his A.B. in Geology from Oberlin College in 1931, a M.Ph. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1937 and a M.S. in Public Administration from Syracuse University in 1942. In 1931-1934 he traveled in Japan and China.
From 1938 to 1953 Craine worked for the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C. serving as research assistant on the National Resources Committee (Summer 1938), procedures examiner for the U.S. Housing Authority (1938-1941), administrative analyst for the Bureau of the Budget (1941-1943 and 1944-1947), director of the Office of Organization Planning on the War Production Board (1943-1944) and as first assistant, then acting director of the Program Staff in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior (1949-1953).
From 1947 to 1948 Craine was sent to Nashville, Tennessee as a government consultant for the Institute of Public Administration, New York City.
Craine came to the University of Michigan in 1953 to work for his doctorate in the new Conservation Department of the School of Natural Resources. He received his Ph.D. in June 1956 with a dissertation entitled "The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District: An Appraisal of a Watershed Management Agency." As advocate of institutional arrangements for managing water resources, Craine taught at the University of Michigan from 1956 to 1973 in the Conservation Department - whose name was changed to Department of Resource Planning and Conservation in 1969. He served as a department chair from 1961 to 1967.
In 1969-70, Craine took a year's leave from teaching to serve on the staff of the National Water Commission in Washington, D.C.
His major contributions in the field of environment management were articles published in the Natural Resources Journal, a report to the Water Resources Study Committee of the University of Maryland in 1966, and a report to the Great Lakes Basin Commission in 1972.
Craine was also research associate at the Resources for the Future, Inc.(RFF), a non-profit corporation established in Washington in 1952. While here, he authored in 1969 a study in water resources and the quality of environment entitled, "Water Management Innovations in England."
He retired in 1974 and died April 17, 1993.
