LeRoy Craig, a longtime Jerome businessman who served 36 years on the College of Southern Idaho Board of Trustees until 2010, died Sunday. He was 89.
CSI’s new Jerome Center, a 20,000-square-foot facility to be built at Third and Lincoln, will carry Craig’s name, the school announced in November, citing his “inestimable” contributions to education in the Magic Valley.
A viewing is scheduled for Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Farnsworth Mortuary, 1343 S. Lincoln in Jerome, according to a service notice published by the family in Tuesday’s print edition of the Times-News. A funeral service will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at Jerome High School, followed by burial at the Jerome Cemetery.
CSI will have sympathy cards located in multiple locations on campus, including the offices of the president and provost, marketing and communications, student life and enrollment services; and the CSI Foundation, CSI President Dean Fisher wrote in a Monday afternoon email to the campus community announcing Craig’s death.
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“The American poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote that, ‘When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him lies on the paths of men.’ For his thirty-six years of service as a Trustee, Mr. Craig was involved in supporting the growth of the College, its programs, and facilities, and he always served as an advocate for the students,” Fisher wrote in the email.
Craig was first appointed as a CSI trustee in August 1974, then elected in January the following year. He served many of the next 36 years as chair, often as the only representative from Jerome County.
The proposal to name the new Jerome Center in Craig’s honor was presented to the board by CSI President Emeritus Jerry Meyerhoeffer, on behalf of himself and the college’s other living former presidents: Jerry Beck, Jeff Fox, former interim President Curtis Eaton, and Fisher.
In his email, Fisher wrote it was “fitting that the training and instruction we offer in Jerome will permanently be named is his honor” at the LeRoy Craig Jerome Center.
A 1952 graduate of Jerome High School, Craig spent much of his life in Jerome County, working professionally as an insurance agent while also serving at the Jerome Chamber of Commerce, and as part the city’s Rotary Club and on the library board. He was also honored as Jerome Citizen of the Year.
Memories and condolences can be shared with the family on a memorial webpage at www.farnsworthmortuary.com, according to the service notice.