William R. Craig 9/21/21 - 3/31/07

William R. Craig was born in Hardin, Montana in 1921. Times were tough back in the days when he grew up in Montana during the Great Depression era. He lived and worked on his father’s ranch until his parents divorced and William and his mother headed to the West Coast, while his father and two younger brothers, my father Ben, and uncle Jim, remained on the ranch.

William moved to Seattle for a short time before making his way to the San Francisco Bay Area. As a young man, he worked in the shipping yards during World War II and eventually worked his way into the auto shops where he developed the skills of his trade and became a Master Mechanic. His expertise and where he excelled the most was working with Classic Cars. His favorite was always the Duesenberg. William often credited Fred Duesenberg (innovator of the Duesenberg) as an engineering genius and he became William’s idol. William became an expert on the Duesenberg automobiles and he owned several of his own during his lifetime. Many people also knew him as Bill Craig and regarded him as the world’s foremost authority of the Duesenberg Automobile.

In the early nineteen-sixties Bill Harrah (Harrah’s Casinos) recognized William’s abilities and persuaded him to move to Reno, Nevada, and work for him at the Harrah’s Auto Collection, one of the world’s largest auto collections at that time. William took the opportunity, relocated to Reno, and worked for Harrah’s Auto Collection for approximately ten years. He then went into business for himself restoring classic cars. William restored several automobiles throughout the nineteen-seventies but suffered a major setback in the nineteen-eighties due to a fire that gutted his house and garages and nearly destroyed his classic car collection and parts

William was determined to rebuild and start over again, and he did. Throughout the remainder of the nineteen-hundreds and into the new millennium, he worked primarily on his own automobiles. He was able to bring his remaining Duesenbergs along to the point where the hard work was completed and they all ran. As he would often tell me “they run good, just like new.” and I would often tell him, “Willy, you’re a genius.” And in my eyes he was.

On a personal note, William Craig was my uncle Willy. He passed away suddenly in March of 2007 at the age of 85. I knew my uncle Willy as a man of integrity, honor, and respect. A strong man, but also a spiritual man with incredible knowledge and wit. A man who would give his family and friends, even a stranger, the shirt off his back. A man who did very well for himself and made his way through this thing we call “Life” with onlv a sixth-grade education. A man who was deaf and could not hear sound unless he had his hearing aid turned on. A loving son who took care of his mother for most of her life, but who never married or had children of his own. Willy was a man whose first and only love was the Classic Cars and he devoted the majority of his life to them.

Uncle Willy’s legacy lives on through this website that my sister and I have assembled for him in his honor. We miss him very much and the joy that he brought to our lives. He will always be remembered by his family, friends, and anyone who knew him. God Bless.

Russell Craig