The day before he died, former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor John G. Craig Jr. was "lucid, witty and at the top of his game," the Rev. Harold T. Lewis said Saturday at a memorial service at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside.

"Let me tell you what I did not see on that Tuesday afternoon," added Calvary's rector. "I saw nary a trace of fear ... nor was there any complaining or railing in God's face.

"Instead, John gave thanks for his life. He talked about his beloved [wife] Candace and his children and grandchildren."

And then, after taking communion and saying The Lord's Prayer, Rev. Lewis said, "he summed up his life with a certainly Craig-esque expression of gratitude: 'It's been a hell of a ride!' "

Many of the nearly 200 attendees would have agreed, having accompanied the iconoclastic editor for much of his journey. Those present included dozens of Post-Gazette staffers past and present, friends and business associates and a few of the public figures Mr. Craig had worked with and sometimes criticized over the years.

Among the dignitaries at the service were Paul H. O'Neill, former U.S. treasury secretary and Alcoa CEO; Tom Murphy, former Pittsburgh mayor; Carnegie Samuel Calian, former Pittsburgh Theological Seminary president; and John Robinson Block, Post-Gazette publisher and editor-in-chief.

Mr. Craig, 77, died May 26 at his home in Sewickley Heights of metastatic melanoma.

In his homily, Rev. Lewis pointed to Mr. Craig's independence and commitment to social justice.

"He perched himself, as it were, on the cliffs of Mount Washington, and like a one-man Greek chorus, delivered an ongoing commentary on the drama being acted out below," he said.

"He did not hesitate to criticize the 'Burgh for its insularity and lack of vision, [and] while others avoided the topic of race like the plague," said Rev. Lewis, who is African-American, "John fearlessly drew parallels between racial discrimination and unemployment, even going so far as to suggest that the poverty level of racial minorities of this city was to some extent a consequence of the attention given to the economics of professional sports."

Through it all, Rev. Lewis said, Mr. Craig did not take himself too seriously. The pastor evoked former prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn's dictum that "when she took the dance seriously, she could perform flawlessly, but if she ever took herself seriously, she'd fall flat on her face."

While many might think that Mr. Craig's place in heaven would be "in that neighborhood behind the Pearly Gates reserved for journalists -- and yes, there is such a place," Rev. Lewis said, he suspected Mr. Craig was side by side with biblical prophets like Amos and Habakkuk.

"A prophet is not, as commonly believed, someone who predicts the future," Rev. Lewis said. "Rather he is one who interprets the signs of the times for the people. He issues words of warning, he challenges the status quo, he is a champion of the oppressed, he is a builder of community ... and so it was with John."

The most fitting scriptural verse for John G. Craig Jr., he said, might be this one from another prophet, Ezekiel: "Whether they hear or refuse to hear, they will know that there has been a prophet among them."

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