Craig Springer Memorial Scholarship

Craig Springer of Hopedale Illinois began throwing a ball to his mom and dad as soon as his hand was large enough to grasp it.  This began a lifelong desire to throw a ball from the pitcher’s mound to the plate.  While major league status with the St. Louis Cardinals might have been his dream, the driving force behind his career was the love of the game, the thrill of competition and the most important thing:  the enjoyment of both his teammates and the opposition; who soon became friends as well.  Baseball became part of his passion for life and what it had to offer terms of being a part of the balance of life.  This passion led to his enrolling at Goshen College and participating on the men’s baseball team all four years as he pursued a degree in business.  While wins and losses were not always balanced in the favor of the win column, the joy of the game and the passion with which he and his teammates competed, stayed at a very respectable level.

Family, friends, teammates, the opposition, coaches and classmates at Olympia High School in Illinois and Goshen College in Goshen Indiana have celebrated his life and his passing from this world.  Craig lost his life in an accident working in the business that he and his father had dreamed of starting as part of another kind of team.  Craig had also been in the process of planning a wedding:  his and his fiancé who he met at Goshen, Erin Clark a member of the women’s soccer team.  For some reason God chose not to intervene that fateful day and we have had to say goodbye.  This group of Craig’s friends has celebrated this right of passage two times each year since the first anniversary of his leaving us, using the venues of golf and softball as the focal points.  This passion for celebration of a life cut far too short has led to the formation of the Craig Springer Memorial Scholarship by teammates, friends from college days, other student athletes from Goshen college and family and friends all across the United States.