DR. A. Craig MacArthur
1938-2021
A. Creig MacArthur, 82 years old, of Provo, Utah, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, surrounded by a family.
Creig was born in Provo, Utah, on July 27, 1938, the eldest child of Arthur Edgar MacArthur and Estella Fay Sumner MacArthur. Later there were four siblings, one of whom died in childbirth. He grew up in Provo and Orem, and from a young age worked on fruit farms in the Utah Valley against the backdrop of the events of World War II.
Creig was excellent at science and math at school, developed a taste for jazz while playing in the school band, and found a mentor in his music teacher, Wes Barry. He was a drum major at Lincoln High School in Orem, where he played the clarinet and saxophone. He loved sports during his teens, playing basketball, soccer, and playing first base on the high school baseball team. Shortly after graduating, he joined the Air National Guard as a member of the 151st Medical Evacuation Group in Salt Lake City, Utah.
To earn money for college, Creig worked on road construction teams near Jackson Hole, Flaming Gorge, and Leeds, Utah. During this time he consolidated his professional goals. When a close friend was fatally injured, he ran to his side and did everything he knew to be comfortable and to help him. Creig decided then and there to become a doctor.
From 1958 to 1961 he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris, France, where he gained a lifelong love for France and an enduring testimony of the gospel.
While studying at Brigham Young University, Creig met Suzanne Holfert at Salt Lake Temple in 1963 and married her. Together they had six boys. After graduating from BYU, he attended the medical school at George Washington University in Washington, DC, where he learned the importance of education and the value of knowledge associated with it. After an internship in El Paso, Texas, where he was Army Captain, his family moved to Soledad, California for a brief internship and then to Rochester, Minnesota, where he majored in orthopedics and sports medicine at the Mayo Clinic. served his final year as chief resident.
After completing his orthopedic training, the family moved to Provo, Utah to join a practice with Dr. Nephi Kezarian (who treated him as a high school football player), Eugene Chapman, and Lyle Jacobs. Creig looked forward to the opportunity to bring his world-class medical education back to his hometown to serve the community that had been so good for him. He loved his patients and worked his entire life improving medical expertise at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and providing medical care to rural clinics in Delta, Richfield, Duchesne and Gunnison.
Shortly before his retirement, he was asked to take part in a humanitarian operation in response to the Haiti earthquake that devastated the island in January 2010. Using his knowledge of French, his military background and decades of medical training, he spent endless hours. Every day, the victims of the earthquake are treated and operated on to alleviate their suffering.
While in Provo, Creig and Suzanne wanted a daughter and were blessed to have Cindy into the family in her teenage years, followed by the adoption of Meiganne, born in 1981. Creig and Suzanne later divorced, and was during this difficult time he is surrounded and supported by his loving siblings, dear friends (Brent Chandler, Howard Francis, Jim Kelson and Chad Moon) and his many collaborators. He was always available to his children and regularly took calls from them in the operating room. After four years as a single parent, he met and loved Lisa Kaye Luke and her four children while working at the BYU Health Clinic. They were sealed for eternity in the Provo Utah Temple on January 25, 1992, and have since kept the covenants they made each other every day. Through Lisa’s love and kindness, Creig’s health and confidence were restored, and together they worked to bring together a very large and loving family.
Creig loved hunting, fishing, boating on Lake Powell, and the friends and family with whom he could share these experiences. As a child he had dreamed of hunting big game in Africa and was able to fulfill that dream with his very close friends. The annual Christmas celebrations, general priesthood meetings, July 4th parades, and fireworks were favorite family traditions. Above all, he loved his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Creig is survived by his wife Lisa, siblings Trevan (Sondra) and children Cindy (Phil) Ballif, Alan (Christina), Andrew, Bruce (Becky), Barry (Donnalynn), Clay (Krista), Cameron (Cassidy). Brent (Megan) Castagnetto, Bryce (Lori) Castagnetto, Angelina (Lane) Seegmiller, Emilia (Jake) Chrisman and all of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Before him, his siblings Sumner, Cheril, Steven and daughter Meiganne died.
His love, wisdom, and unique ability to accurately assess and then correct many times daunting challenges are missed, but many bodies and relationships remain and thrive today thanks to him. He loves others very much as they do to him.
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, June 2, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. at Grandview 21st Ward Chapel, 1600 North 1880 West, Provo, Utah. Friends can call the Provo Mountain Morgue, 185 East Center Street, Tuesday, June 1, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and the church on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. before the service. Burial, Provo City Cemetery. Condolences are available at www.bergmortuary.com.
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