Thomas Allen Craig Jr., 68, of Kingston passed away on Monday, December 8 at Health Alliance Hospital in Kingston, surrounded by love. During his struggle with cancer, he planted a yard full of flowers and berries and repainted several rooms.

That was typical of Tom, a man with boundless energy and many areas of expertise. Born in Michigan on February 21, 1957 to Thomas Allen Craig and Carol Smith, the oldest child of two young people who faced challenging issues, he would leave home after 10th grade in search of a better life and find Florida. At 17, a road trip gone horribly wrong found him arrested in the company of a small group who chose to rob a bar at gunpoint, something he never would have considered a remotely good idea.

He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on his 18th birthday, a comparatively light sentence due to the efforts of a bar patron he had protected. In prison, he read every book he could get his hands on, held a variety of jobs, ran poker games, made wine and helped liberate sacks of prison-bound staples into the hands of hungry local families in Raiford, Florida. He studied Shotokan under sensei Mark Herman and horticulture and cooking as an involuntary employee of the state.

In the early 1980s, the prison administration needed to convict someone for a murder they themselves had orchestrated. It had not been expected to become a big deal, but their chosen enforcer confessed his role to Dan Rather on national television, and an alternate story was needed. Having shared an eight-man cubicle with the victim, authorities chose Tom Craig as their patsy, offering him a plea deal and a clumsy NDA of sorts. He rejected this and was placed in solitary confinement for two years, ultimately winning acquittal after a six-day jury trial.

After prison, he would work at a variety of trades. A Chicago resident for several years, he owned and operated a tropical fish store, enjoyed a brief but highly successful prizefighting career downtown, and loved taking the L to hear some good blues or rock. In Denver, Colorado he would work as an independent contractor doing all sorts of construction. For a time, he found great satisfaction in working as a prayer warrior at Orchard Road Christian Center in Greenwich Village.

In 2006, following a challenging divorce, he found his way to Prison Talk Online, a support and discussion site for prison families and former prisoners. It was there, while exploring the possibilities of writing a book about his Florida experiences, that he met BlueStone Press reporter Anne Pyburn. The two would collaborate on the creation of his memoir for 18 months before meeting in person, on the steps of the Crossroads Deli in Cottekill, and falling inexorably in love.

Their efforts to build a blended family were complicated in the extreme. Having found a safe place, Tom had a long-overdue nervous breakdown and wound up hospitalized on the infamous “flight deck” of Benedictine Hospital. It was not so much anything he did or said as the reaction of local authorities, some of it well-intended, some of it misguided. and some of it outright abominable, that impacted the family’s ability to remain united.

Ultimately, Anne and Tom would reunite in Michigan and live there and in Kentucky over the next decade. Everywhere they lived, Tom deployed an artist’s gift for landscape design and a grower’s emerald thumb to make sure they were surrounded by a glorious profusion of flowers and fresh food. He was an avid outdoorsman and photographer whose images were featured in the Monroe County Citizen and widely admired. He studied and practiced beekeeping with his neighbors and friends of the Vernon Community, fished the Cumberland River, and explored the hills and hollows of the Pennyroyal in search of mushrooms and fossils. He also mastered the art of growing psilocybin and used it effectively to “reset” his mind and largely put an end to the mental health struggle he had been wrestling with since 2007.

Tall and tattooed, Tom elicited a wide variety of reactions and preferred to lead a very private life, but never failed to make exceptions for elderly people who needed to reach high shelves and for small children. Those fortunate enough to experience his charisma, the warmth of his vast heart, and his fine mind never failed to find him memorable. He is survived by his loving wife, Anne Pyburn Craig of Kingston; his father, Thomas Allen Craig of Michigan; two sons, Sebastian and Wolfgang Craig of Colorado, and daughter by mutual choice Crystal Anne Thomsen of Delaware, two grandchildren, Athena and Roman, and several siblings and stepsiblings.

In accordance with Tom’s wishes there will be no public service held. Those who remember him fondly are invited to practice the arts of extreme kindness, radical honesty and lifelong learning in his name. Hail the Traveler.

Cremation and private funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Henry J. Bruck Funeral Home, 261 Broadway, Kingston, NY.