Distinguished nursing educator, beloved mother, traveler

Margaret Mabrey Craig died March 7 at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center after a short illness. She was 78.

Margaret was born November 5, 1941, in Philadelphia. She studied for two years at Muskingum College in Ohio, and in 1964 earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University School of Nursing.

For two years she was a staff nurse in the emergency room of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

She married James E. Craig, then a Presbyterian minister, in 1966. The newlyweds moved to Tehran, Iran, where she served for three years as a nurse at a community school.

She returned to America in 1969 and enrolled in the graduate program at the School of Nursing at Boston University, earning her master’s of science degree in 1971.

For a few years she was on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Nursing Department, and later served as public health officer for western Massachusetts.

In 1980 she became director of the nursing program at Greenfield Community College, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where she served until 1999 when she moved on to Napa, California to become director of the nursing program at Napa Valley College. She retired from that position in 2010.

Two sabbatical leaves gave her the opportunity to live and work outside the United States. During the 1983-84 school year she was on the nursing faculty of a university in Western Australia, and for the 1993-94 school year she taught community health nursing at the University of Guam.

In November 2018 she moved, with her husband, to Pilgrim Place, a continuing care retirement community in Claremont. She quickly became involved in various activities, but that involvement was interrupted by a short illness and her untimely death.

From a very young age, all she ever wanted to be was a nurse. During her many years as a nursing educator, she guided the development of hundreds of prospective nurses. She received the Distinguished Alumna award from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

She loved to travel and was always ready to take a trip. Especially during the past 10 years, after her retirement, she and her husband traveled extensively to six continents as well as all over America.

She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Jim Craig; sons, Jeremy of Singapore and Micah of Brooklyn, New York; one niece and two nephews.

She was laid to rest March 13 at a small private ceremony in Joshua Tree, California.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in Ms. Craig’s name be made to the American Nurses Foundation Coronavirus Relief Fund at https://www.nursingworld.org/foundation/programs/coronavirus-response-fund.