By MARY ANN SLATER

Gazette Staff Writer

Helen "Betty" Craig can still recall the days when her son Clifford would sit in her home in Parkwood and build models with his erector set.

She also remembers how Cliff, when he was a teenager in the mid 1950s, transferred his passion for making models into a love for building houses.

"He helped my brother build houses on the weekends and in the summers while he was in high school," said Betty Craig, of dark Avenue in Indiana.

Cliff Craig's love for building never wavered during his 51 years of life. Hours before he died last March, he was with one of his sons, inspecting the construction of the $73 million Spring Hollow water project in Roanoke County, Va. Craig, then the county's utilities director, had been in charge of the project's construction for the past six or seven years, and had even designed the project's water treatment plant.

"He was a very dedicated, no nonsense employee ... who would just bury himself in his work," said Gary Robertson, current utilities director for Roanoke County, "He worked 24 hours a day. There's no telling how many hours he put in on this project."

"He was one of the smartest, most intelligent men I've known," said Lee Eddy. Eddy is a member of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, which hired Craig in the mid 1980s. "He was very positive, very confident of what he was doing." Cliff Craig was always confident of himself, his twin sister Carol Bishop, of Indiana, said recently.

Carol Bishop and Cliff Craig were born in 1942 in Indiana. Both graduated from Indiana Area Senior High School in 1960. Bishop remembered growing up with her brother.

"I didn't realize just how smart he was," she said. "He never had to bring books home. If he made his mind up to do something, he'd do it."

"I had him in a science class and he was an outstanding student," said Harold Grove, a retired teacher from IAHS. "He had a keen scientific mind, and was always interested in the subject."

But it wasn't just science Craig was interested in. He was a championship wrestler in 1959-60, even making it into the state finals, Bishop said.

After graduating from IAHS, Craig joined the Navy, where he was a chief petty officer for 10 years. In the early 1970s, Craig went on to Penn State University, where he majored in civil engineering. He spent about 10 years working on water projects in central Pennsylvania before becoming director of utilities for Roanoke County in 1985.

A major part of his job as the county's director of utilities was supervising the construction of the Spring Hollow water project. The project involves pumping water from Roanoke River into the Spring Hollow Reservoir. The reservoir covers a surface area of approximately 160 acres and contain 3.2 billion gallons of water, enough to last the county for the next 50 years. "The dam and the pumping station were designed by a consulting firm and it was (Craig's) job to oversee the work," Eddy said.

But Craig thought he could do more.

He started checking into the design of the proposed water treatment station that would accompany the project, and he had some questions about its usefulness. He proposed an alternative treatment method, which had been used before in small treatment plants throughout the United States and which used fewer chemicals than conventional methods. The method removes small particles of sediment from water through two filters. One of the filters contained plastic chips, the other granulated coal.

But Craig's proposal met an early roadblock. The treatment plan he proposed had never been used in Virginia, and the state health department refused to accept data from other states to prove the validity of the method.

Craig was undaunted. While the dam was being constructed, Craig and his son set out to give the health department some data it could work with.

"He had to prove to them it would work. He and his son Matthew drew up the plans for it," Bishop said. They then set up a small-scale model of the water purification method in the family's kitchen. The model included a toilet-tank float to control the water level in the model.

Craig then persuaded the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors to give him $150,000 to build another demonstration project. This one was built in an abandoned barn located near the Roanoke River, Bishop said. Craig gutted the barn and put up new panels all around the sides.

"They put computers in there that ran 24 hours a day," Bishop said. For seven months, Craig and his staff pumped water from the river through a stainless steel tank. Dozens of gauges analyzed the water for clarity and chemical content.

Craig's hard work and perseverance paid off. The state health department accepted his data, and approved the water treatment method proposed by Craig. He then went on to design plans for construction of the treatment plant.

"It was almost entirely his baby," Eddy said. "Based on the design on (Craig's) treatment process, there was a substantial savings in the project cost." Some reports have said that savings will be as high as $12 million, but Eddy could not confirm that.

Eddy said the board of supervisors expected water rates to increase to help pay for the project. "We are hoping that, because of the savings we realize, we might not have to raise the rates as much as we thought."

Construction of the dam was winding down shortly before Craig's death in March. In late February, the pumps began channeling millions of gallons of the Roanoke River into the dam.

On Saturday, March 26, Craig was visiting the dam site with one of his sons when he became ill. He and his son returned home where he collapsed with a heart attack. He died later that day.

"After he died, the board (of supervisors) was looking for a way to honor his memory," Eddy said. Last summer, they found one. In August, the board dedicated The Clifford D. Craig Memorial Dam and presented an original painting, which was commissioned by the supervisors, to the Craig family.

Betty Craig said that, for years, she had known how important the dam project was to her son. "He would tell you every little detail it. He wanted to tell you every little thing about it even though it was all Greek to me."

But, Betty Craig said, she didn't realize how important Cliff was to the project until the dedication ceremony. She said she was pleased to hear the speakers talk so highly of her son's service and dedication.

"And one man said, 'If Cliff was here now, he wouldn't have stood for any of this pomp. He didn't want any credit for himself.' " But Robertson, who took over as utility director for Roanoke County when Craig died, gave his predecessor a lot of credit. "He left mighty big shoes for me to fill."

Eddy said water from the Roanoke River is still being pumped into the dam. Construction is expected to begin on the water treatment plant in a few months, and should be completed within 12 months.