ROGER ELDER CRAIG

1933 - 2017

Both friends and foes knew he was one of a kind. A strong supporter of social justice causes and unions, a formidable opponent in court, Roger E. Craig also was a man with a renowned sense of humor who lived life as an adventure. Mr. Craig, a former Michigan state senator and City of Detroit Corporation Counsel, died in Naples, Florida, on December 17. He was 83. Mr. Craig was born April 24, 1933, in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, but spent most of his life in the Detroit area. He earned a law degree from Wayne State University and was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1956. A life-long Democrat, Mr. Craig made his first major entry into politics in 1964, when voters in the 10th District (Dearborn, Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, Riverview, Southgate and Taylor Township) elected him to the state senate. In Lansing, he shared a rental house with several other state legislators, including then-State Sens. Basil Brown and Coleman Young. Mr. Craig often recounted that 10th District voters "un-elected" him in 1970 after he made a trip to California to support Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers grape boycott. He also went to Selma, Alabama, in the mid-1960s to take part in demonstrations supporting the civil rights movement. After losing the 1970 election, Mr. Craig went back into private law practice. A brief flirtation with the notion of running for governor in 1972 generated a batch of purple campaign buttons reading "Roger the Grape," in reference to his grape boycott support; but he withdrew from the race before the primary election in deference to Sander Levin. Coleman Young, who became Detroit's first black mayor in 1974, recruited Mr. Craig to head the city's law department as Corporation Counsel in 1977 and '78. After leaving that post, he returned to private practice. Mr. Craig and his wife, Marlene, moved to Naples, FL, in 1989, where he continued to practice law, handling cases in both Michigan and Florida. When he wasn't trying cases or dabbling in politics or demonstrating for a cause, Mr. Craig threw himself with gusto into a variety of pursuits – playing guitar and singing folk songs with family and friends, scuba diving, boating along Florida's Gulf Coast, writing a total of five fiction novels, and traveling. At the age of 70, he bungee-jumped off a bridge into a river gorge in Australia. He and three friends started an annual canoe/camping trip in northern Michigan in 1964. As other friends and their children were added, the canoe trip population grew to a couple of dozen devotees. Mr. Craig attended every year through 2015, when he was 82. Mr. Craig is survived by his wife Marlene, of Naples; four sons, Ryan and Kelly Craig, both of Detroit, Carrick Craig, of Kalamazoo, and Randy Powers, of Coral Springs, FL; two daughters, Kim Craig Miller, of Livonia, and Renee Linsea, of Naples; 10 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren and nephews. Arrangements for a memorial gathering are incomplete. Condolences can be sent to the family at 2050 W. Crown Pointe Blvd., Unit C109, Naples, FL 34112.