Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 27, 1994                   TAG: 9408290044
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ENGINEER'S LEGACY HAS HIS NAME

Since arriving in 1985, the Roanoke County utilities director had devoted most of his professional energies to bringing to fruition the county's $73 million water system, the most expensive public utility project ever undertaken in Southwest Virginia.

It was at the Spring Hollow Reservoir in March that Craig, 51, suffered a fatal heart attack.

His son Matthew, a rising high school junior, was with him that day. He hadn't been back to the reservoir since, until Friday. Matthew, his six siblings, mother and other relatives were honored guests at an elaborate dedication ceremony christening the reservoir's dam the Clifford D. Craig Memorial Dam.

"I think he'd be really proud everyone showed up for this," Matthew said. "But he wouldn't admit it."

Cliff Craig's widow, Joann, remembered the times the family went picnicking and fishing for perch in Spring Hollow's tiny pond. Craig would talk about the reservoir that someday would cover 250 acres, and the dam that would rise more than 20 stories high. They couldn't visualize it.

"When he would talk, it just [seemed] like this pond was going to grow a little bit," she said.

"This is his dream," she said, standing on the edge of the reservoir, which is scheduled to be full of water from the Roanoke River by the end of the year. "This is something he worked for."

More than 250 people - friends, family, co-workers and people who had a hand in building the water system - watched as county officials remembered Craig and unveiled a bronze plaque that will be affixed to the dam to show its new name.

"He was truly a brilliant man, a man who loved his work," said county Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix. "He was a man who got mud on his shoes. He was a man comfortable in a blue collar just as well as a white one. He was a good man."

Instead of contracting outside the Utility Department, the Board of Supervisors - despite initial misgivings by some members - gave the job of designing the water treatment plant to Craig, who also was the project engineer for the reservoir. They were glad they did.

County officials credit Craig with designing the plant in a way that will save Roanoke County millions of dollars over the long run. His design had never been used in Virginia before.

"I have never worked with a public employee who was as sharp, as intelligent or as dedicated as Cliff Craig," Supervisor Bob Johnson said.

"It's appropriate to pause right now," he said, pointing to the dam, "and remember this is Cliff Craig."

Joann Craig donated a framed photograph of her late husband to the county, and the county presented the family the first numbered, limited-edition prints of a painting of the reservoir by artist Louis Barberis, the artist who painted the "Portraits of Roanoke" for the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. The prints are available to the public for $75.

"This is just too overhelming," Joann Craig said after the dedication ceremony. "I never expected it to be named after him."