The Next Page: Remembering John Craig, 1933-2010
Share with others:
During the last decade of John Craig's "To the Point" column, I was the PG's op-ed editor and, therefore, John Craig's first reader. It seemed daunting, at first: John was a key mentor since the days of my PG internship, a shaper of my destiny, a benevolent authority figure. Now I'd be suggesting improvements to his work?
About this portrait: Not long after I started at the PG, John Craig called me into his office and asked if I could execute a "special project" for him. People in the newsroom had been lamenting the lack of windows. So he decided that I should paint him hard at work in his office, showing its ample window. The painting would be blown up, framed and hung directly on the wall in front of his office -- as if the newsroom had a view through the solid wall and into his room with a view.
The newsroom continued to grumble, but moved on to other topics. The image is still up.
Stacy Innerst
(sinnerst@post-gazette.com)But John G. Craig Jr., the columnist, was a dream client: Never wrote too long. Never missed a deadline. For that matter, he didn't miss a single weekly column from 1982 to 2004. Above all, John never objected to editing. He had the grace of a confident newspaper writer.
John enjoyed annoying people, in the name of making them think and sometimes just for the hell of it. He wrote with verve and had what the teachers call "voice." He took stylistic risks, sometimes entangling that voice in woolly thickets, but always with respect for the rules of grammar and syntax -- he just liked to see how far they could be stretched.
We think of John as a mover and shaper of public policy, and many of his columns were about the grave issues of the day. But he also wrote about the domestic arts, the stuff of life.
One of my favorite columns was "Wagged By The Dog" from 1998, a report on the morning ritual with his two Bernese Mountain dogs. They would wake him at 5 a.m., drag him out to get the paper, and then chew much of it to pieces. John confessed that the whole exercise was absurd -- they should train the dogs to rise later, or he should at least get a green plastic tube for PG delivery. In summation, John declared his worldview, one that made it such a pleasure and an honor to work for him:
"So why don't I do it? The line between affectation and eccentricity is a fine one, but a mild disdain for the conventional, in my experience, keeps the spirit alert to possibility."
-- John Allison (jallison@post-gazette.com)
Sept. 27, 1998
John devoured facts, and he started the Benchmarks project at the PG, which he carried on into retirement as president of the Pittsburgh Indicators Project:
The latest Benchmark report is of interest because it touches a number of governmental bases -- but most particularly because of what it has to say about transportation in and around Pittsburgh.
The consensus of the experts seems to be that we are rather well served in this regard. That probably comes as a surprise, if all the bitching we're so used to hearing is any measure. But before talking more about that, let me make note of several other findings ...
I even question the planned extension of the "T" to the North Side. If an easy and reasonably priced expansion from the Pennsylvanian station can be built, using the existing railroad bridge, it may make sense as a supplemental tourist attraction.
First Published May 30, 2010 12:00 am
