He worked for Bell Labs briefly as an electromechanical design and development staff member before he returned to Cornell to pursue his graduate studies.
He served two terms as chair of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and as associate dean of graduate study and research in 1967.
During his WPI tenure, he oversaw extensive campus expansion and doubled its revenue and endowment.
In 1985, Cranch was elected president of the American Society for Engineering Education, which honored him as a fellow in 1993.
He was a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a member of Tau Beta Pi honorary engineering fraternity, president of the Cornell chapter of Sigma Xi and a member of the Society for Experimental Mechanics.