ROGER PELTON CRAIG

Born: December 31, 1940
Died: May 25, 2010

Roger Craig was born in Evanston, Illinois, son of Edgar Henry and Elizabeth Trowbridge Pelton Craig. He prepared for Yale at Evanston public schools and New Rochelle (NY) High School.

Roger was a member of Silliman, a political science major and on Dean's List. He was a member of Young Republicans (Treasurer 1959-1960) and the Yale Political Union. He spent his junior year in France.

After Yale Roger attended Harvard Law School where he earned his LL.B. in 1965.

Prior to his death Roger prepared his own obituary which is quoted below with additions from his biography in our 25th Reunion Book:

Roger spent his junior year of college in France where he met Ann Blackford Rea. They were married in Ann's hometown of Marion Ohio on September 1, 1962. They have two children, Elizabeth and Richard. Both are married and each has a son and a daughter.

Ann and Roger moved to Washington, D.C., upon his graduation from law school, and lived there until moving to La Jolla, California in 2001. During his time in Washington, Roger held a number of positions in government, starting with a clerkship on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia with Judge Luther Youngdahl. Between 1966 and 1970 he worked in private practice, for the Mayor of Washington and then for the Bureau of the Budget.

From 1970 to 1987 he worked in the Post Office Department and its successor, the U.S. Postal Service. He served in the Law department from 1970 to l980, becoming Deputy General Counsel, and from 1980 until 1987 was Assistant Postmaster General with nationwide responsibilities for the design and construction of postal buildings and real estate acquisition, disposal and leasing. In his 1987 bio he observed, "it really is fun trying to manage a bureaucracy of more than 800 people, spending $1.5 billion per year to acquire and manage the Postal Service's real estate and buildings."

From 1987 until his move to La Jolla, he owned and managed a small group of rental buildings in the Washington, D.C. area. In La Jolla he and Ann took up residence in the graceful home his maternal grandparents, Roger and Jennie Jewell Pelton, had purchased in 1936. The house, designed by Thomas Shepherd, was the Showcase House for the San Diego Historical Society in May 2000.

The two most important forces in Roger's life outside of his family were the year spent in France as a college student and the thirty-five years he and Ann spent in a particularly vital religious community, St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C. Each was a liberating experience that set the tone for Ann and Roger's life among their family and their friends. Over the years, the Craigs have been a magnet for friends gathering for meals, weekends, or even longer times in their homes and in France.

In his 25th bio he added: "What a lasting impact the junior year I spent in France has had on me. I met Ann that year and our life in France and love for that country have stayed with us constantly since, affecting even daily routine in ways I can hardly account for. Ann has probably affected me more than anyone or anything else. She has grown into a very significant lady over the years. My claim to fame is that I have not got in her way. We are a traditional couple and a radical couple in our devotion to first principles. We are very different people, complementary personalities. We have learned to appreciate our differences."

In La Jolla, Roger's principal belongings have been membership and leadership positions at St. James Episcopal Church, the La Jolla Historical Society, and the Twelve Thirty Club of the La Jolla Country Club.

Ann and Roger's marriage is the best example of what Roger liked to call, based on his St. Mark's experience, life before death. For all that life, Roger remained immensely grateful until the end.

Roger Craig died on May 25th after an 18 months' struggle with lung cancer. In addition to Ann, Roger was survived by their children: Elizabeth and Michael Yeager of Washington, and Richard and Mindy Craig, and 4 grandchildren, Ethan Yeager, Lydia Yeager, Devlin Craig and Natalie Craig.

The family suggested that donations in his memory may be made to St. James by the Sea Episcopal Church or the La Jolla Historical Society, both of La Jolla, or the National Lung Cancer Partnership.