By: Alex Martin ’16
Meet Craig, an experienced and knowledgeable crane operator helping to build our school’s new building, Adelphia Memorial Hall. Craig has worked on construction sites in Northgate, Ballard, Republican St., Renton highlands and Pacific Plaza in Seattle. He has over 10 years of operating experience under his belt across the country in states from Montana to California to Nevada throughout his career while “following the work”.

His career got off to a good start with a unique opportunity and he did extremely well in his first years of work driven by a love for craning. In his years of craning, Craig has developed many favorite parts of his job. He enjoys “larger tower cranes because of their ability to work and what they can lift”.     

     The crane Craig is using at Seattle Prep is a large tower crane that can be operated by remote control. In using the remote, Craig can operate the crane inside the building or at a specific place where a load is being lowered. But, he prefers being in the cab of the crane as he feels more in control, more comfortable and can  more clearly see what he is lifting and lowering. Remotes came into the construction industry 15 years ago and are now standard on smaller cranes.

     Craig has faced many weather battles and while he has been in wind gusts up to 70 mph, it is advised not to operate a crane in winds above a constant 30 mph. Lightning also hampers an operators work as the crane is a “big lightning rod” and must be shut down for at least a half hour after the lightning has stopped.

     Craig is not only a tower crane operator but also specializes in forklifts and mobile cranes on the construction site. And, Craig has not only worked in construction but has had a gamut of jobs ranging from a mortgage broker, to a military contractor to a warehouse-man. However, being a crane operator is one of his favorite jobs as he says, “you’ll never have an office with a better view, I guarantee you.”

     Working specifically at Seattle Prep, Craig finds the site more organized than others he has worked on and believes the workers must be more politically correct while on site. He also believes “you people (students) have a lot more common sense than a lot of the people in this city.”

     Craig finds value in building our school as he believes “more schools, the better” and it benefits our community greatly.