Crosfield Electronics was founded by the renowned innovator John Crosfield in 1947 and the company was a pioneer of automatic register control and colour scanning technologies for the print industry.

Salmon joined the business in the 1970s as director of R&D and manufacturing.

He became managing director the following decade.

Former Crosfield deputy managing director, commercial, Lars Janneryd, said: “Jim was very successful in growing the company to a strong global position. He was recognised by the government and received an OBE for export achievement.

“Jim was a formidable leader. He had vision and he was technically-minded and also commercially-minded.”

Janneryd said that together with Brian Jordan, who was deputy MD for the technical section, the trio were able to “develop equipment the market wanted”.

Mel Ettinger, who was CEO of Crosfield’s North American business for more than a decade and then went on to become CEO of Polychrome, Xerox Graphic Systems, Applied Graphics Technologies and now Business Technology Solutions, had remained close to Salmon and his family over the decades of their association.

He posted a message of condolence in a Crosfield alumni Facebook group.

“Joan and I are devastated and shocked. Jim had celebrated his 84th birthday on October 8th and Joan and I sent him an email congratulating him on reaching this milestone and wishing him many more years of good health and happiness,” Ettinger said.

“I can truly say that Jim was not only my boss, but was one of my dearest friends. I shall miss him forever and on behalf of Joan and myself I want to express our most sincere condolences to Rosemary, Nick, Tom, Elizabeth and the entire Salmon family. May he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing.” 

Pictured above, left-right: Brian Jordan, Jim Salmon, Lars Janneryd and Mel Ettinger

Andrew Gunton, a former Crosfield engineer who has organised an annual get-together for former Crosfield staffers for nearly 30 years, said Salmon had been on great form at the most recent gathering, held last month.

“Jim was there, and it was nice to see him. He was chatting to all sorts of people. This is very sad news.”

Richard Tibbits, who was sales and marketing manager for Crosfield’s South East Asia and Australian business for 23 years, also paid tribute.

He said: “It is indeed a very sad day for those of us who had worked at Crosfield Electronics during the time Jim was our managing director. Both he and Lars Janneryd together developed the company into what it became, putting the company into a position within the graphic arts and printing industry as a world leader.

“He will indeed be sadly missed by so many ex-colleagues and friends who I worked together with over many years.”

Former FFEI CEO Andy Cook, who joined Crosfield as an international service engineer in 1987, said of Salmon: “I met him in my first week. He was 'the king' and he commanded a high level of respect.

"He led the transition of Crosfield into an international business and through that helped the UK's graphic arts business and associated suppliers. He took the business to new heights at that time. I certainly had a lot of respect for Jim – I last saw him about a year ago and he still had that aura.”

Salmon was MD during a pivotal and sometimes turbulent period for Crosfield, which had been acquired by De La Rue in 1974. Media mogul Robert Maxwell subsequently took a 15% stake in De La Rue and attempted a hostile takeover of Crosfield via his interest in Scitex, in an attempt to thwart Crosfield being acquired by the DuPont and Fuji consortium.

Despite Maxwell’s machinations, Crosfield was taken over by DuPont and Fuji in 1989, just as desktop publishing systems were beginning to take over from traditional proprietary repro systems.

Salmon retired in 1992, but remained active in the industry. He was chairman of Dalim Software and involved with the John Crosfield Foundation prior to it being incorporated into The Printing Charity in 2013.

He died on 17 October after collapsing at home after an evening out.

He is survived by his wife Rosemary, their children Nick, Tom, and Elizabeth, and grandchildren.

Funeral details were not available at the time of writing.