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Cassin W. Craig, housing authority solicitor

Cassin W. Craig

By Walter F. Naedele, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: July 11, 2012

Cassin W. Craig, 91, solicitor for the Montgomery County Housing Authority for 37 years, died Sunday, July 8, at Foulkeways, the Gwynedd retirement community where he had lived for more than 10 years.

A longtime resident of Fort Washington, Mr. Craig was president of the Montgomery Bar Association in 1970.

Mr. Craig survived cancer surgeries in 1981, 1993, and 1998, his wife, Jean, said in an interview.

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Craig graduated from Abington High School in 1940, studied at Haverford College, and, though he enlisted in the Navy in 1942, earned a Haverford bachelor's degree in 1943 before going on active duty.

The Navy sent him to Harvard Business School for a year's training as a supply officer, after which he served on a convoy escort from the East Coast to the North African campaign.

After graduating from law school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1949, Mr. Craig joined the firm that became Wisler, Pearlstine, Talone, Craig & Garrity, where he became partner in 1957 and from which he retired in 1995.

While in private practice, Mr. Craig was the Montgomery County Housing Authority solicitor from 1959 to 1996 and solicitor in the 1980s for Hedwig House Inc., which runs four halfway houses for psychiatric rehabilitation in the county.

He was board chairman of the Masonic Village at Lafayette Hill and a warden of the Church of the Messiah in Gwynedd.

Besides his wife of 56 years, Mr. Craig is survived by sons William and David; daughter Pamela Delaney; and six grandchildren.

A life celebration was set for 11 a.m. Friday, July 20, at St. Thomas Church, 7020 Camp Hill Rd., Fort Washington.

Contact Walter F. Naedele at 215-854-5607 or wnaedele@phillynews.com.