Today is the 90th birthday of Dr Robert J. Craig OAM (St Mark’s 1954-58), and in his honour his family have created the Craig Family Scholarship which will create life-changing opportunities for rural students at Adelaide University and St Mark’s College for generations to come.
We are delighted and grateful to announce this outstandingly visionary and generous initiative today.
Robert Craig studied medicine while at St Mark’s, played in the College XVIII, and served in the University Regiment. After further medical training in the United States, he became a pioneering cardiologist in Adelaide, also becoming an enterprising pastoralist. In 2017, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia “for service to medicine as a cardiologist”.
Robert was the first of three generations of the Craig family to come to St Mark’s. When he left the College in 1958, he wrote to the Master, R B (Bob) Lewis, to thank him for the College’s great support for him, and expressed a wish to do anything he could to help the College in future years.
The Craig Family Scholarship is generously endowed by Robert Craig’s family in his honour, and also in recognition of the crucial role that scholarships played in creating opportunities for him. They wish to help create similar opportunities for future generations of students.
The Craig Family Scholarship will be awarded to a rural student of good character and academic merit who is in financial need and has demonstrated resilience in facing and overcoming hardship of some kind. It is open to students of any discipline.
One Scholarship will be awarded each year to a new or returning student who is or will be studying at Adelaide University to enable and support them to be at St Mark’s.
At the discretion of the College, the major part of the award will be used to assist in payment of College fees, and the remainder will be provided to the Scholar as a direct payment to assist with other living costs. Ordinarily, the Scholarship will cover 50% of the St Mark’s residential fee, with a further 50% of that amount paid to the Scholar.
In its first year, 2025, which is the College’s Centenary year, the Craig Family Scholarship will have a value of $18,000, making it one of the most generous scholarships supporting students to be at St Mark’s.
Robert Craig’s family have kindly provided the following statement about the background to the Scholarship:
Dr Robert Craig
Dr Robert Craig is a quiet individual who left his mark on the medical field and the community at large. During his time at St Mark’s College from 1954 to 1958, while pursuing his Adelaide University Medical Degree, he faced the personal tragedy of the sudden and at that time unexpected death of his father. The support he received from the college and his friends was crucial in helping him overcome these challenges and continue his medical studies.
After marrying Judith Walker, Robert continued his physician and then cardiac training and studies at prestigious institutions such as Royal Melbourne Hospital, Stanford, Duke and Harvard Universities. In the late 1960s, he returned to Adelaide as one of the leading cardiologists, bringing Coronary Angiography and Coronary Graft Surgery to South Australian patients. He retired from the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2004 as Clinical Director Cardiovascular Service.
Robert’s early training and return to Australia were supported by scholarships and the National Heart Foundation. He dedicated five decades to volunteering with the National Heart Foundation, including serving as President of the South Australian Division and Member of the National Board. His contributions were recognised with the Sir John Loewenthal Award in 1998, and in 2017, he was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia.
His major interest outside family and medicine was farming. He and his wife Judith bought and amalgamated a number of properties near Harrow, Western Victoria with particular interest in growing super fine wool and more recently a niche of fine wool prime lambs whilst paying attention to regenerating the natural ecology.
In recognition of his lifelong dedication and contributions to the medical field and the community, his family wishes to establish the Craig Family Scholarship at the University of Adelaide. This scholarship will honour him and acknowledge the vital role that scholarship funding played in his educational journey.
The Craig Family Scholarship aims to support deserving students pursuing studies at Adelaide University. We believe that this scholarship will help alleviate the financial burden for students and empower them to achieve their academic and professional goals, just as scholarships enabled Robert to do so many years ago.
His children (Jim, Andrew, Sandy, Duncan, and Michael), along with their wives (Claudia, Kate, Heidi, Kanyapat, and Jane) and grandchildren (Henry, Angus, Bailey, Jessica, Daisy, Emma, Lilly, Lachie, Campbell, Siena, Hugo, Patric, and Grace), wish to recognise his contributions by endowing the Craig Family Scholarship. This endowment will celebrate his legacy and continue to support future generations of students.
On behalf of all the students whose lives will be transformed through this remarkably generous award, and on its own behalf, the College expresses its profound thanks to the Craig family – and warmest congratulations to Robert Craig on his landmark birthday, and on all that he has achieved!
Applications for the 2025 Craig Family Scholarship will open later this year and close at 9am on Tuesday 17 December 2024. Learn more about the Craig Family Scholarship here.
Find details of all scholarships that help students live and learn at St Mark’s here.
To help provide scholarships to support students to be at St Mark’s, visit our Giving page.
Photo: Dr Robert Craig OAM and the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell AM, at St Mark’s College, June 2024.
