Steven Brookes Craig

On February 19, 1957 Steve received orders to ship out to Panama's Canal Zone.  He had no knowledge of the Panama Canal Zone or that the Army had troops there.  After five days at sea, he arrived at Cristobal which is adjacent to Colon, Panama and driven directly to Fort Clayton.  He was assigned to the US Army Signal Service at Fort Gulick, and promoted 4 times in just 22 months from the time he had enlisted.

In 1958 while stationed in Panama, Steve met Juel at a party and as he will say in his biography, his life was changed forever.  He dated Juel during the rest of his stay in Panama until he was honorably discharged at the end of his 3 years of enlistment in 1959.

Steve started his civilian life attending Heald's College and graduated as an Electronics Technician and was hired for work by the Morrison Planetarium on September 5, 1960.

On September 28 Steve and Juel applied for a marriage license at the Alameda County Court House in Oakland and on Saturday, October 1, 1960 they got married.

He worked two jobs at first, part time at both Morrison Planetarium and Chapman Plastics and by the end of 1960 the Planetarium asked Steve to work full-time starting January 1st, 1961.

For the first three years of marriage Steve and Juel lived on Blake Street in El Cerrito, and in 1963 while expecting their first baby, they moved to 1319 Richmond Street.  Joycelin was born in 1963 and Rory was born in1966.

Although repairing cars was a hobby for Steve, this work became extra income most of his working life.  His first car purchase as a teenager was a '32 Ford which he stopped driving in 1968. Rebuilding it became his personal project through the Summer of 2021. Family and friends helped celebrate this accomplishment in June of 2021.

Steve spent over 40 years working for the California Academy of Sciences and Morrison Planetarium, retiring in 2003. His children grew up visiting the museum and running around behind the scenes. It was a special place for Steve, and Steve & Juel created friendships that still exist today.

His greatest passions and accomplishments he would say were raising a family, traveling the United States to visit family & friends and attend family board meetings in Michigan. He loved installing Pendulums, taking care of and enjoying the Family Ranch in Willits CA,restoring cars, visiting Panama,attending car shows and car and train museums. His favorite pastimes: Thanksgiving at the Ranch, puzzles, sudoku, watching Jeopardy, wood working and most especially, he loved celebrating his wedding anniversary each year with Juel on a special getaway trip. He enjoyed watching his first grandson Julian grow up, go to college, and become a musician. He loved attending Julian's concerts and traveling with him and Juel to Washington D.C., NYC, and Panama during his youth. Gramps, as he wanted to be called, was also fortunate to spend his latter years sharing special visits to the pumpkin patch, birthdays and holidays with Rory's younger children, Sidney and Leela.

Steven and Juel celebrated their 61st Wedding Anniversary with their daughter Joycelin, son-in-law Conrad, grandson Julian, their son Rory and grandchildren Sidney and Leela and other family members on October 3, 2021.

After a long battle with interstitial pulmonary disease, a degenerative terminal illness, Steve was born to life everlasting on November 5, 2021.