Floyd A. Craig, a legendary Baptist communicator and mentor to a number of other Baptist communicators of my generation, entered eternity last Friday evening. He was 91.
I called him The Godfather. Not the mafia-type, but the type Miriam-Webster defines as one who founds, supports or inspires. Floyd was all three.
He was instrumental in founding Associated Baptist Press, Baptist News Global’s predecessor organization, in 1990.
That was the year the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee unceremoniously fired Baptist Press editors Al Shackleford and Dan Martin — two other legendary Baptist communicators — because they would not do the bidding of Paul Pressler.
Within hours of the Baptist Press dismantling, Floyd and his wife, Anne, along with veteran secular journalist Charles Overby, former SBC public relations chief W.C. Fields and a number of state Baptist paper editors, came together to establish Associated Baptist Press.
At the time, I was serving as public relations director at Oklahoma Baptist University, Floyd’s alma mater and a client of Craig Communications, the consulting firm he and Anne founded in 1985. I remember the day he called me to let me know he had just filed the paperwork with the State of Tennessee to incorporate ABP. It was a proud day for him.
Until Greg Warner was hired as ABP’s initial executive director, the news service’s operations were managed out of the Craigs’ office on Hillsboro Pike in Nashville.
Floyd and Anne Craig
Prior to establishing his consulting firm, Floyd served in a communications role with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, as director of communications for the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, and later moved to North Carolina to serve two four-year terms as deputy director of then- Gov. Jim Hunt’s Office of Citizen Affairs. He also served as ombudsman for the State of North Carolina.
Before retiring in 2015, Floyd and Anne counseled numerous Baptist organizations, nonprofit agencies and churches on communication strategy and practice. When Mercer University was exploring establishment of a school of theology in the early 1990s, I called on Floyd to help us conduct market research and develop a communication plan for launching the school in 1995.
It was at OBU that I first met and worked with Floyd. I was in my late 20s, and that was the beginning of almost four decades of friendship and mentorship. He was an inspiration and source of support until his final days.
I learned from him important principles of communication and integrity, but I also learned a lot about how to deal with people. Once, while complaining to him about a staff member who kept getting ahead of me on things, he gave me a piece of advice that has served me well over the years: “I would rather restrain a fanatic than resurrect a corpse.” And he was right about that.
I still have on my bookshelf his Christian Communicators Handbook: A Practical Guide for Church Public Relations, one of 10 books on communications he published.
The pride of Okmulgee, Okla., Floyd also was an ordained Baptist minister and the son of a Baptist minister. He could stand in the pulpit and deliver the holy, but he also could relate to the ribald. And he was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known.
The network of Floyd Craig proteges is vast and spans the country. He lives on through all of us, and I will forever be grateful for what he meant to my life.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be made to Baptist News Global.
Editor’s note: Service arrangements are pending. This article will be updated when that information is know.
Larry Brumley
Larry Brumley serves as senior vice president for marketing communications and chief of staff at Mercer University. He also serves as chairman of BNG’s board of directors.