Veteran EMS provider dies, remembered for his passion to serve

By Joe Napsha
Tribune-Review

LIGONIER, Pa. — George D. “Skeeter” Craig loved serving his community of Ligonier, serving on council and with the fire department, working for the Ligonier Valley Ambulance, delivering meals to shut-ins or helping with the American Red Cross blood drives.

“He was very active in the community,” said his childhood sweetheart and wife of 66 years, Helen Weller Craig.

Mr. Craig, 87, died Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, at his home.

He was born Jan. 1, 1929, in Unity, a son of the late Kenneth and Regina Palmer Craig, and grew up near what was then Mountain Inn along Route 30, east of Laughlintown, his wife said.

“The (Ligonier) mountains were his playground,” Mrs. Craig said.

He loved to hunt in those woods and taught his sons how to hunt, she said.

He was known to many as Skeeter, a nickname his grandfather gave him because of a patch of hair that stood up on his head, she said.

After graduating from Ligonier High School, he and his brother Robert enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, which was activated during the Korean War. He remained stateside during the war, his wife said.

Mr. Craig drove an ambulance for Ligonier Valley Ambulance for more than 24 years, retiring in 1991.

He served eight years on Ligonier Council in the 1960s, service he enjoyed, she said. He was the foreman of the construction crew that built the original Friendship Park near the Ligonier Valley High School football field.

He dedicated many hours to the American Red Cross Blood Service and Disaster Unit and was a board member of the Ligonier Valley Historical Society and the Ligonier Valley Endowment.

As a volunteer with Ligonier Valley Meals on Wheels, Mr. Craig was the one who took the meals to the elderly and shut-ins living in the mountains because he had a pick-up truck, his wife said. He was a retired firefighter with Ligonier Volunteer Hose Company No. 1.

Mr. Craig loved the outdoors and was a warden for the Laughlintown office of the state Bureau of Forestry.

“When a hunter was lost in the woods, they would call Skeeter because he knew the mountains so well,” Mrs. Craig said.

He was such an avid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers that when the team was losing, he would turn off the television and head for the mountains, his wife said.

After finally retiring at the age of 80, the couple traveled the world.

“We did have a full, wonderful life,” she said.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, Scott, Jeff and Doug Craig, all of Ligonier; three daughters, Susan Woolridge of Ligonier, Marcie Post of Oxford, and Jennifer Dorff of Colorado Springs, Colo.; 12 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren; three sisters, Gerry Turin of Greensburg and Betty Roberts and Audrey Boyd, both of Ligonier.

He was preceded in death by a grandson, Adam Roberts, and a brother, Robert Craig.

Friends will be received from noon to 5 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the J. Paul McCracken Funeral Home Chapel Inc., 144 E. Main St., Ligonier. A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Heritage United Methodist Church. The Ligonier Volunteer Hose Company No. 1 will hold services at 11 a.m. Saturday in the funeral chapel.

Memorial contributions may be made to Heritage United Methodist Church or Ligonier Valley Library.

Copyright 2016 Tribune-Review 

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