Remembering Homer Craig | The Homepage

The Hazelwood native, Army veteran, retired police sergeant and Hazelwood Initiative Inc. co-founder died at age 86 on March 7

Photos of Homer Craig with family and friends. Homepage file photos

By Managing Editor Juliet Martinez

Hazelwood Initiative Inc. founding member Homer Craig died on March 7. In his more than eight decades in Hazelwood, Mr. Craig was known and loved for his service to others and the wisdom he possessed.

Born June 29, 1939, Mr. Craig grew up on Monongahela Street in Hazelwood. He attended Gladstone Elementary and Taylor Allderdice High School before studying political science, sociology and journalism at Duquesne University.

He served in the Army, where he met his wife, Ursula, during a deployment to Germany. They married in 1964, creating a blended family with Ms. Craig’s children John and Patricia, Mr. Craig’s daughter, Candace, and soon afterward, their son Sascha. The family returned to Pittsburgh and settled on the same street where Mr. Craig grew up.

Back in Pittsburgh, Mr. Craig served with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police from 1967 to 1994, when he retired as a sergeant. He worked as a K-9 officer. He was also part of a police task force to contain civil rights riots in Hazelwood in 1968.

He described how he calmed down the riots. He would find and subdue the person in the back of the crowd who was egging everyone else on.

“If you get the guy with the big mouth, usually you get the guy that’s causing the problem,” he said.

But police officers outside of Mr. Craig’s task force used to call him and the other task force members “social workers” because of their unique approach to policing. The nickname was not a friendly one, he said.

“They never called us that to our face; they did it behind our backs,” Mr. Craig said. “It was a bad term as far as they were concerned.”

His community involvement happened on and off the job. What eventually became Hazelwood Initiative Inc. started out as a group of neighborhood volunteers who went out into the community to make a change.

“At first it started with task forces from the city,” Mr. Craig said in 2024, recalling the youth, economic, civilian and police task forces of the 1990s. “It was a seed that grew into a tree.”

Mr. Craig founded a group called the Hazelwood Rainbow Writers Club. Meetings were held at the old Carnegie Library on Monongahela Avenue.

He said he chose the name based on the diverse group of people who came to the meetings.

“We had everything — boys, girls, black, white, old and young,” Mr. Craig said. “Our oldest member was 89 years old.”

In the summer, he helped run competitions and games, giving away school supplies as prizes. Mr. Craig said he and the other volunteers used to beg stores for donations. One summer they were able to give the boys free haircuts and take children around on a horse named Bella that cost them $1,000 to rent.

“It was just a really community-oriented organization,” Mrs. Craig said. “The main thing was about cleaning up and helping people.”

Homer and Ursula Craig Day

A mayoral proclamation declared Feb. 13, 2024, “Homer and Ursula Craig Day.” It praised the couple’s decades of showing up to help in any way they could.

District 5 City Councilor Barb Warwick presented them with the proclamation.

“They are an institution. They’re at every event. They’re always helping,” she said, noting that Mr. Craig contributed something wise and insightful at every meeting he attended.

Mr. Craig was a member of Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Chapel, Hazelwood Initiative Inc. and the Monongahela-Marsden Block Association, along with Ms. Craig. Mr. Craig was also a member of the Greater Hazelwood Community Collaborative and the YMCA.

The proclamation recognized the decades the couple “consistently worked to advocate for the needs of Hazelwood residents, and have made the community safer, more welcoming and more beautiful.” It added that they “have touched the lives of countless Hazelwood families and hold a special place in so many Hazelwood hearts.”

When Mr. Craig spoke, he stressed his gratitude for his wife and family.

“I wouldn’t be me without her,” he said. “I’m proud of what I did in the community, but I’m more proud of the family that has supported me and allowed me to be who I am. And when I say the family, I’m not just talking about blood lines.”

He named Howard Jackson, who arrived at the council meeting not knowing the Craigs would be honored that day. The two go back 35 or 40 years, Mr. Craig said.

“He’s like a son too. I want him to be acknowledged too,” he said.

That day, Mr. Jackson recalled his childhood attending Saint Stephens School in Hazelwood. Then-Officer Craig taught him the importance of unity as essential for changing lives, steering him away from divisive ideologies.

He called Mr. Craig a “guardian angel father” to the whole neighborhood. “I’ve been a community activist all my life, and it started from his mentorship,” he said.

Reverend Michael Murray of Hazelwood also said he saw Mr. Craig as a father figure.

“I know you’re filled with wisdom, and that’s why I tap you as a resource,” he said.

Pastor Benjamin Janssen of Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Chapel praised the Craigs’ dedication to helping others, as well as the friendship they extended to him as a relative newcomer in the community.

“Behind the closed doors, behind the public meetings and everything, they always care about not only today but creating a better future for the community tomorrow,” he said, describing how Mr. Craig is always thinking about how to engage children and improve their lives. He marveled at Ms. Craig’s support of three food banks and the positive example that their seemingly tireless activity sets for others. “In their retirement they never retired,” he said.

Dave Brewton, the late real estate director for Hazelwood Initiative, thanked the couple for their friendship and noted Mr. Craig’s work to preserve neighborhood history.

“I know that the Woods House, the oldest house in the city, would not be standing if you hadn’t fought — long before I got to Hazelwood — to keep it there,” Mr. Brewton said.

Juanita Godfrey, a neighbor and fellow member of the Monongahela-Marsden Block Association, has known Mr. Craig since childhood. She testified to his unending desire to be of service.

“We thank you, Mr. Homer,” Ms. Godfrey said.

Four generations of Craigs attended the ceremony, including the honorees’ granddaughter Whitney Craig, who spoke by Zoom from Texas. She recalled being taken to community events even if she didn’t want to go, but how much she learned from those experiences.

“I encourage everyone to live like Homer and Ursula Craig and leave the world better than you found it,” Whitney Craig said.

Mr. Craig did leave the world better than he found it, but his leaving has made it a little sadder for everyone who knew him.

Cassandra Harris contributed to this article. She is a graduating senior at Point Park University and former Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer intern at The Homepage.