ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
Dan Critzer, the owner of Amcon Inc., the company that put up the steel girders for the Dominion Tower and the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center, died Monday morning.
Critzer, 44, of Roanoke, died at his mother's residence in Afton.
His cause of death was not disclosed.
Joe Green, an estimator at Amcon, said Critzer spent the week before Christmas in the hospital.
Critzer had been in a state of bad health that included liver problems, said Bill Mason, a Roanoke attorney and a close friend.
Mason met Critzer eight years ago through his law practice.
"There's a certain folklore associated with the ironworking business because there's always a risk to take,'' Mason said. ``And that's the way Dan lived his life. There was never a building too high to build or equipment too heavy to move."
Mason remembered a Critzer story about construction of the bridge across the New River gorge several years ago.
Critzer was a foreman on the job - a position that put him thousands of feet in the air, hanging off exposed steel.
"He told me that it was so cold at times that his beard would freeze," Mason said.
Critzer was a self-made man who started out as an apprentice for an ironworker's union and moved on to become president of his own company.
Critzer bought out a Roanoke portion of Richmond's Williams Crane and Rigging and named it Amcon Inc. about five years ago, Green said.
The company, which is known for having the largest conventional crane in the Roanoke Valley, has most recently been working on jobs at one of Norfolk Southern's railroad shops and at Stonewall Jackson Middle School.
"Dan Critzer was a very, very talented person and an interesting one, too," Mason said. "He worked on everything from bridges to atomic power plants. He was ready to take on things that other people didn't want to do."
A funeral service for Critzer is scheduled for today at 2 p.m. at Rodes United Methodist Church in Afton.
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headhsot) Critzerby CNB