Doris Merrilyn Craig

Doris Merrilyn Craig, 98, of Pomona, California, died peacefully at Mt. San Antonio Gardens on September 17, 2025.

Doris was born on September 23, 1926 in Bedford, Indiana to Myrtle L. and Everett T. Craig. Doris was raised in Shelbyville, Indiana and lived initially with her parents in their small grocery store (Craig's). Doris suffered from poor eyesight since childhood and due to retinal deterioration from retinitis pigmentosa eventually became legally blind; but despite this she accomplished much during her lifetime.

Doris was graduated from Hanover College earning a B.A. in Physical Education in 1949. From 1949 to 1952 Doris worked as an instructor at the YWCA in St. Louis, Missouri, where she met her lifelong friend, Mae Beck "Becky." From 1953 to 1955, she was the Resident Program Director and counselor at the YWCA in Chicago, Illinois. After receiving her M.A. in Christian Education in 1953 from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, she spent what she would recall one as of the highlights of her career serving as a teacher from 1955 to 1963 at the American Girls School affiliated with the University of Beirut located in Beirut, Lebanon. She taught physical education, ethics and Christian instruction and published the first yearbook for the American Girls School. From her time spent in Beirut, Doris maintained lifelong Lebanese friends and a love for their people, food, and an understanding of their culture. Doris earned a Bachelor of Divinity in 1965 from McCormick Theological Seminary.

Doris served eight years as the Director of the YMCA's Servicemen's Center in Indianapolis from 1965 to 1973 and from 1973 to 1979 as the Director of the Ft. Benjamin Harrison Recreation Center. During the Vietnam War, she hosted dances and entertainment for the servicemen at Ft. Benjamin Harrison.

During her lifetime, Doris learned how to tap dance, and enjoyed swimming, opera, symphony, and writing poetry. Doris was a Library of Congress certified transcriber of Braille. She transcribed into Braille a book written by Willie Morris entitled My Dog Skip. Doris had a total of four guide dogs, with her last dog "Digger" accompanying her in 1994 to the Gardens in Pomona.

Doris is survived by nieces Ellen C. Skillman and Anne L. Craig, J.D. (Steve McClimon, husband), both of Indianapolis, Indiana; Juli L. Myers of Texas; and Tonya Pierce of Bloomington, Illinois. She was preceded in death by her parents, Myrtle L. (Anderson) and Everett T. Craig; her brothers, Eugene L. Craig, D.V.M. and Glen Craig; her nephews, Malcolm O. Craig and Rodney D. Craig; her nieces, Glenda Garrett and Teresa McCoy; and close friend Mae Beck "Becky."

Doris lived a long and meaningful life marked by kindness, and she will be remembered by all who knew her for her tenderness and understated humor.