Craig Larimer Obituary

Dr. Craig Wayne Larimer completed his long and happy life at home with family on May 20, 2015 aged 96 years. His life of caring for others began in Salida, Colorado, following the First World War and in the midst of the 1918 flu epidemic. The son of Dr. Guy and Mrs. Wiles Larimer, his mother's family were among the founders of Salida and his father was hired in 1908 from his home in Iowa to be the trauma surgeon for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway, as well as Salida's family doctor.

An idyllic boyhood ensued amongst his father's garden, his mother's home cooking on a coal and wood stove, and the family's great love of fly fishing and picnicking around the Sawatch Range. His father, long the Salida High School team physician and longest serving school board president, instilled in his son his love for sports as well as the outdoors (including an unrequited passion for the Chicago Cubs that lasted for over eighty years). Dr. Larimer followed his father's path to Northwestern University and Medical School, serving as president of his Sigma Nu Fraternity and Vice President of his medical school class. Upon graduation in 1943 he joined the war effort in Europe, serving as battalion surgeon to the 1st battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Division, 1st Army from the Battle of the Bulge, across the Remagen Bridge, and then to post-war service in prisoner of war and refugee camps at Dachau and Moosburg.

Dr. Larimer took his residency in anesthesiology upon his return home and in 1948 became the first board certified anesthesiologist in Colorado Springs. There he established a group that supported the three local hospitals, Penrose, St. Francis and Memorial until his retirement in 1980. He was one of the first in town to supply anesthesia to open heart surgery and later developed a specialty in pediatric anesthesia. Dr. Larimer also served as president of the El Paso County Medical Society and its Clinical Club; the first vestry of the Chapel of Our Saviour; the Flume Placer Civic Association; and for many years as secretary and then president of the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club.

His sense of caring for others was repeated in his home life where he cared for his loving wife, Hazel George Larimer at her untimely death from cancer at age 49, and then at the end of a long and happy second marriage for Betty Condon Larimer. Many in the Colorado Springs community also were thankful for his personal and effective medical attention, and in return he was forever thankful for the many friendships and kindnesses shown to him by comrades, colleagues, patients, and golf and bridge partners.

Dr. Larimer is survived by his son Craig Wayne Larimer, Jr., daughter-in-law Irene Huber Larimer, and by his step-children William C. and Annalyn Thompson and Carol Ann McBride. He was always proud of his seven grandchildren and loved hearing of their accomplishments in their colleges and careers: Hazel, Robert, Wiles, and Matthew Larimer, Suzette Thompson Farrar, Michael Thompson, and Amy McBride Waltman. He was also delighted to welcome and see to adulthood two great-grandsons, Daniel and Lewis Farrar, as well as to welcome two great-granddaughters, Kylie Waltman and Zaya Thompson.

In lieu of flowers please make donations to Pikes Peak Hospice and Palliative Care or to your priority charity. A celebration of life will be held at the Chapel of Our Saviour, 8 4th Street at 11am on Saturday June 6, followed by a reception for friends and relations at the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club, 8 Lake Avenue.