Craig, a kind and generous man remembered for always having a smile and a positive attitude, succumbed to complications from lymphoma on April 26, 2022.
A native of Brooklyn, he came to us from his beloved Regis High School in Manhattan. He took to heart the Regis motto, “Men for Others,” throughout his personal and professional life.
Craig was a disciplined student, majoring in psychology. In addition to having a campus job as a manager at the Student Center, he played freshman basketball and was active in the local Big Brothers program. He roomed with John Gephart ’75 and Bill Pfund ’75 for three years in Hamilton and Spelman, adding Nate Benson ’75 for the last two years. Senior year he moved to Dial Lodge, which he served as president. A clubmate recalled Craig’s calm demeanor that fostered an atmosphere of dignity and respect at meetings when the newly resurrected club needed both stability and a wider variety of members.
Psychology became Craig’s passion, and after receiving his A.B. at Princeton, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where he met his wife of 40 years, Celia Routh Hooper. He worked with children and adolescents in Cleveland, and after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kans., moved to North Carolina, working in Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, and Asheboro. The last 15 years of his professional life were spent in private practice at Randolph Counseling Center in Asheboro. He was proud of the many children and young adults he served. In retirement Craig completed a professional textbook for new psychologists and lay people interested in current psychological theory. He and Celia enjoyed the outdoors and most recently lived in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.
Craig considered being a father one of his biggest accomplishments and enjoyed every stage of it. He cherished his granddaughter, too, and even overcame his fear of heights to go ziplining with her. In addition to Celia, Craig is survived by their two sons, Daniel Hooper Smith and Thomas Arthur Hooper Smith; their granddaughter, Kayleigh M. McCarthy; and his sister, Stephanie Nicholson. We join them in mourning the loss of this good man.
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