BRADFORD, VT — Genille (Gene) Craik passed away peacefully at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, after suffering a brief illness. He was 99 years old. Gene was born on June 3, 1916, in New York, N.Y. to Ethel May Wood and Norman Craik. Gene was predeceased by his loving wife Marge who passed away in 2003. They were married for 62 years.
Gene is survived by his two daughters, Marjorie (Dena) Craik of Bradford and Elaine Durand and her husband, Phillip of Litchfield, N.H.; two grandsons, Randall and Travis Durand; and one great-granddaughter, Autumn Durand of Litchfield.
Gene was a Veteran of World War II. He enlisted in the Seabees at the start of the war and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands and Okinawa. He was the cook for his battalion and often had to hunt and fish for food to feed his comrades. After the war, Gene worked for 30 years at the Chelsea Naval Hospital as the head cook until he retired. After the war, Marge and Gene lived in Wilmington, Mass. for 15 years. While Gene continued to work at the Naval Hospital, the couple built their own business known as the Wilmington Lawn Mower Service, which they owned and operated for 15 years.
Gene and Marge moved to Bradford in 1975. Gene was an avid outdoors-man who loved hunting, fishing, and maple sugaring. One of his favorite rivers to fish was the Waits River, where he was known by the locals as “Mr. Fish”.
In 2007, Gene was awarded the Bradford Cane by Larry Coffin in honor of being the oldest man in Bradford.
Per Gene’s request, there will be no services or funeral. Anyone wishing to honor him could recite the traditional 23rd psalm, a prayer he and Marge said together every night of their marriage.
The Hale Funeral Home and Cremation Care of Bradford is in charge of arrangements.
(NOTE: The above obituary is from Hale Funeral Homes & Cremation Care.)
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