Craig Buhrendorf was born in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in Westfield, New Jersey. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and is the third generation member of his family to graduate college with a Mechanical Engineering degree. While at Lehigh, Craig was actively involved with the Lehigh Radio Network as a “progressive rock” deejay, serving first as Program Director for its FM station, and later as General Manager for the AM-FM network. Craig also belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, where he was both Treasurer and President.
After graduation, Craig began his career at General Electric’s aircraft engine manufacturing plant in Lynn, Massachusetts. He had several assignments there, including a stint as a shop foreman. He then switched to selling large industrial machinery, working as an area manager for a couple of smaller international companies and living in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut before settling in Avon in 1984. During that period he closed the largest industrial air compressor order ever for his division and broke into the ski industry with his division’s first sale of air compressors for snowmaking.
In the early 1990’s, Craig pursued a Masters in Business Administration at the University of Connecticut in West Hartford. This prepared him for a new career in financial services sales, and in 1995 he became employed by Smith Barney in Hartford as a Financial Advisor. After fourteen years of commuting to Hartford, Craig took advantage of an opportunity to work in a more independent environment closer to home and became affiliated with Raymond James in Avon, where he has focused on serving mid to upper level insurance executives since 2009.
Craig joined the Rotary of Avon-Canton in 1998 and is well renowned for his slide presentations that showcase the many trips that he has taken with his wife Jeane, a dentist with her own practice in West Hartford. Craig and Jeane, over their twenty-eight years of marriage, have traveled to some rather unusual destinations, including Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Bali, Ecuador, South Africa and India. One of their most memorable trips involved spending a day distributing school supplies purchased with funds donated by club members to students at a rural elementary school near Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Craig is a Rotary Past President and a Paul Harris recipient. He has served as silent auction chair for the golf tournament, chair of the Tastes-of-the-Valley fundraiser and co-chair of the Youth Exchange Committee. He currently chairs both the International and Investment committees and is the Club’s biographer. In addition to travel, Craig enjoys hiking, biking and cooking. He is an avid New York Yankees fan.