01/11/2025
Ronald Craig Taylor, who went by his middle name Craig, returned to the welcoming arms of his beloved mother, and father, on a sunny January 5th, 2025. He was 68 years old. He was driving his trusty old steed, his '57 Chevy pickup, when he suffered what is believed to have been a massive heart attack. Some of his nieces and nephews believe the last thing he did in this life was to steer the old truck off of the right side of the highway so as to avoid oncoming traffic, so nobody else would get hurt.
Craig was born in Salt Lake City on May 31st, 1956, to R.L. and Carlene Anderson Taylor, who had left Sanpete for the big city after they got married. Craig grew up in Salt Lake and attended Granite High School. He left home around the age of 17, bound and determined to forge a life for himself. He never graduated from high school but subsequently earned a GED, the Certificate of High School Equivalency. Craig went to work in the construction industry, ultimately becoming proficient in many of the construction trades, but nobody was better with a cement finishing trowel in their hand than Craig. He was an ace cement finisher. At one point, he even hired on with a company that took him to Japan. There was an interest there in American building practices, and they needed skilled craftsmen. Ultimately, though, right around 1990, Craig went to work for the Utah State Department of Corrections, becoming a line officer at the Central Utah Correctional Facility (CUCF) in Gunnison. If you knew Craig from his days working at the prison in Gunnison, you might have known him as R.C. That was how he signed his name in that environment. There weren't many front-line officers who were as good as Craig when a situation became difficult or even dangerous. Craig proved himself to be a man you could count on when the chips were down.
Craig served the people of Utah in law enforcement for some 24 years, retiring from Corrections circa 2014. He spent most of his retirement working, at a discounted rate, for his parents, helping renovate various rental properties of theirs. And he worked other odd jobs to supplement retirement, even going after and earning a Commercial Drivers License (CDL).
In the movie Paint Your Wagon, they say that the three best things in life are, in no particular order, to***co, alcohol, and women. Craig was a connoisseur of all three. He loved women so much he married, and divorced, three of them. Craig's first wife, Linda, brought two young children to their marriage. Lytton and Mylinda. Craig loved them as his own, and did his best to help raise them. He and his second wife, Nancy, had a son of their own, Travis Craig Taylor. Travis was raised mostly by his mother in southern Utah, as per the divorce decree. Craig and his third wife, Dolly, were much better at being a fun-loving dating couple than a stodgy old married couple. Craig had tattoos of the names of his kids and all of his grandkids. He loved them very much.
Two days before Craig passed away, he had been at the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a serious case of pneumonia. Craig and the attending physician disagreed over whether Craig should stay, at least overnight, in the hospital. The doctor could see that this old man was stubborn, but what he didn't know was that Craig wasn't afraid of anything, not even death. So Craig went home. He didn't want to become "a pincushion in some hospital bed." Everyone who knew Craig knew that under a few crusty layers beat a heart of gold. But even his big heart could not survive pneumonia on top of a 50 year long two pack a day cigarette habit and an affinity for cold beer. Craig left this life the way he lived it. On his own terms.
Craig was preceded in death by his boy Lytton and his parents R.L. and Carlene. He is survived by his little brother Chad (Jeannette) Taylor, Mt. Pleasant; his beautiful sister Melanie (James) Hancey, Salt Lake City; his kids Mylinda, West Valley and Travis; grandkids, Samantha, Savannah, Lauren, Kaitlin and a slew of great grandkids. Per Craig's wishes, his body will be cremated. He once joked with his mother, just to get a rise out of her, that he wanted his ashes to be strewn over the Sanpete County Landfill. She was aghast. Nor did Craig wish to have a formal funeral. There will be a Celebration of Life to be held at a time still to be determined.
