Wilson Craig, Santa Rosa Junior College teacher, philanthropist, dies at 85

OBITUARY

Wilson Craig

If Sonoma County is or ever was home to more dedicated and generous teachers and advocates of education than Wilson “Wil” Craig, there could not have been many.

Craig taught for more than 50 years, first at Petaluma High School, then at Santa Rosa Junior College. He and his late wife, fellow teacher Ruth Parlé Craig, contributed more than $1 million to scholarship funds they created for the benefit of SRJC students.

And as he approached the end of his life, Wil Craig arranged to leave most of his estate to the junior college’s foundation.

He died Jan. 7 at his Santa Rosa home. He was 85.

SRJC’s Sarah Laggos said is too early to know the value of Craig’s bequest, which includes real estate and investments.

Just eight years ago, then-?President Robert Agrella presented Craig the SRJC President’s Medallion for his five decades of teaching English, foreign languages and history, and for the financial gifts that at that time had allowed the awarding of scholarships and grants to 115 junior college students.

Craig, who had no children, once said, “I’m interested in what we can do to challenge and encourage others. I’m a teacher - I love students and I love learning.”

He was born in Detroit and grew up mostly in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. In 1950, at the age of 19, he enlisted in the Navy and served two years at the Alameda Naval Air Station.

From there, he was transferred to the Navy Bureau of Personnel in Washington, D.C., then to duty aboard destroyers stationed on the East Coast.

Honorably discharged in 1954, Craig earned a two-year degree at Santa Rosa Junior College. He moved on to UC Berkeley, graduating in 1958 with a degree in political science.

That same year, he met and married Ruth Parlé Godkin, who’d been an enormously popular and highly regarded French teacher at Santa Rosa High School when, in 1949, late SRJC President Floyd Bailey enticed her to the junior college to teach French language, cooking and culture.

The year after Wil Craig earned his undergraduate degree, Cal awarded him a teaching credential.

He joined the faculty at Petaluma High, teaching history, English and French. He taught there for 27 years, and in the midst of his career earned a graduate degree in history at Sonoma State University.

Fifty-five years old at the time of his retirement from the high school in 1986, Craig moved to Santa Rosa Junior College and taught English, French and Spanish immersion courses. He continued to teach at the junior college until about seven years ago.

Fascinated and fascinating, the Craigs traveled extensively and shared a love of books, music, technology, photography, fine wines and good desserts. They had been married 30 years when Ruth Parlé Craig - “Madame Craig” to generations of adoring students - died in 1988.

In 2005, three years before Wil Craig was honored with the SRJC President’s Medallion, the Network of Community College Foundations named him its Philanthropist of the Year.

Though he left the bulk of his estate to the SRJC Foundation, he long has been supportive also of the Santa Rosa Symphony, Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center, the North Bay Italian Cultural Foundation and the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Craig is survived by brothers Gordon Craig of Burlingame and Douglas Craig of Ventura. At his request, there will be no services.

Chris Smith