January 26, 2007

Evergreen’s Palmer Craig receives President’s Senior Service Award at age 103

Villages resident Palmer Craig was recently honored with the President’s Senior Service Award at the age of 103, after having served as a member of Sons In Retirement for 34 years.

Palmer, who celebrated his birthday this January, was a charter member of the Villages Branch No. 38 when it was formed in 1972. He served as Big SIR in 1977. Branch 38 grew so large that Branch No. 114 was created. Palmer became a charter member of the new branch and has been an active member ever since.

Born on Jan. 29, 1904 in Cherry Hill, Md., Palmer moved with his family in 1908 to Wilmington, Del., where he spent his formative years. In 1927, Palmer graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. The young engineer then joined the Westinghouse Electric Company, where he designed a radio powered by alternating current instead of batteries. In 1930, he moved to Radio Corporation of America in Camden, N.J.

One of his first assignments with RCA was to equip a 15-car train with speakers in every compartment. The train was called the “Red Special Vacation Train.” His task was to insure that the passengers could listen to radio throughout the trip. The train left New York on Memorial Day and completed the journey on July 4. They went through Chicago and then south to New Mexico and on to Southern California.

After an excursion into Mexico, the train headed north to Yosemite and up the coast to Canada, to Toronto, and then back to New York. Across the Canadian Rockies there was no radio signal, so Palmer played phonograph records, which he had to change manually since there was no automatic changer at that time.

Palmer Craig then moved up through the ranks at Philco. Five years after his hiring, he was put in charge of one of their labs. In the late 1950s he was made Vice President of Engineering. In 1961, after Ford bought Philco, Palmer moved to California as Director of Operations. He retired in July 1969. In August of that year, he and his wife moved to The Villages in the Evergreen area where he currently lives.