Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Craig Allen McPherson, of Buckingham, passed peacefully on June 4, at UVA Medical Center after a short illness. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 21,1946 to Bertha (Allen) and Donald G. McPherson. In 1964, he graduated from Solon High School. He attended Ashland College 1964-66, playing football and serving as a founding member of Phi Delta Sigma, a local fraternity that later went national as Phi Delta Theta.

In 1966, he joined the Navy, assigned to the nuclear sub service on the USS Edison. He trained as a cook and spent several 90-day deployments underwater. After his discharge in 1970, he attended and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. In 1983, Craig moved to Farmville initially as Executive Chef at Longwood and later as head chef at the Heritage House restaurant.

In 1990, Craig moved to the Eastern Shore of Alabama to be near his parents who had retired there. After his parents passed, in 2006 Craig relocated to the Dallas, Texas area near his sister Janet Glidewell-Scott. However, Central Virginia was in his heart, and in 2009 he moved to Buckingham, living at Col Alto with close cousins Martha and Paul Louis.

Craig never met a stranger … he didn’t want to feed or help. In his last 15 years Craig became a beloved member of the Buckingham community and at times served as: an elder of Maysville Presbyterian Church; President of the Ruritan Club; teacher and Board Member of Ellis Acres; and a lead in bringing the first mobile Food Pantry (Blue Ridge Pantry) to Central VA, initially parked at Maysville Presbyterian Church. He was named Buckingham Volunteer of the Year in 2014 by the Chamber of Commerce. He was the beloved Captain Craig on Historic Hatton Ferry for seven years. In the past few years, he continued feeding people through his part time job at the Rte 20 Market.

He is predeceased by his parents. 

He is survived by sisters, Laura McPherson of Asheville, North Carolina, Jamie Bisesi of Twinsburg, Ohio and Janet Glidewell-Scott of Haslet, Texas; along with five nieces, two nephews, four grandnieces and three grandnephews and many loving cousins.

A Celebration of Life will be held July 20 at 11 a.m., at the Historic Village in Buckingham, light lunch to follow. To honor Craig’s life, please consider a donation to the Maysville Presbyterian Church (Attn: Food Pantry), PO Box 221, Buckingham, VA 23921.