Prior to working as a museum executive, Crampton was a political figure in Massachusetts and held positions with the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
[2] Crampton was in the United States Army 1959 to 1961, first as a tank commander in West Germany, then was a drill instructor at Fort Lee.
[3] In 1984, he challenged Gerry E. Studds for the United States House of Representatives seat in Massachusetts's 10th congressional district.
[3] Crampton was elected to the group 1 seat on the Palm Beach, Florida town council in 2018 and was reelected in 2020, 2022, and 2024.
[10] In 1999, Crampton was appointed interim president of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, which ran the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
[12] Soon after taking the job, Crampton decided to make a dinosaur the a feature exhibit of the new 46,000-square foot museum.
[3] Under his leadership the museum saw attendance increase from 110,000 in 2010 to 378,000 in 2019, went from a having a $120,000 deficit to a surplus in that same time period, and grew from a rundown 14,000-square-foot facility to a 40,000-square-foot building, a 5,000-square-foot education center, and 20,000 square-foot outdoor program area.