Craig Crowther was a musician, poet and an outdoor adventurer. He was one of those rare people whom everyone considered their best friend. He played guitar and sang in three bands: The Smith's Bros. Dirt Band, The Craig Crowther Band and The Cowdaddies. In the most recent, The Cowdaddies, his voice was the center. Fellow bandmember Harold Carr says: "The guitar, fiddle or bass players could send subs to a gig and the music would work. But if Craig couldn't make it, there were no Cowdaddies."
The author of 2 books of poetry, his work is mischievous and funny, with a sensitivity to the Western landscape. He was the editor of Concours, the Westminster College literary magazine in the 1970's. He went on to help organize with Charles Potts the Underwater Poetry Festival and publish a group of poetry books under the press name Litmus, including one of Charles Bukowski's first books of poetry. He kept the plates, and used to joke about printing up another batch of "first editions" so he could retire.
Crowther was a founding member of Word Affair in the 1970's, and City Art in the 1980's. As a printer he helped many local poets to publish their work. All the City Art publications were made possible under his tutorage.
Born on September 25, 1946, Crowther started college at Southern Utah University where he organized the first campus protest in Utah. He finished his education at Westminster College, and served one year in Vietnam. His interests were reflected in his occupations: he owned a printing business, started an outdoor wilderness touring service, performed music professionally, and worked for the state of Utah as manager of e-Publishing.
His legend as a river runner continues. Many are the tales of him navigating his 18 foot raft through rapids on the Grand Canyon, Desolation and other rivers in the West. And he never flipped his raft! One of Crowther's favorite phrases was "divide the number of days you sleep outdoors by the number of days in the year. That is your happiness quotient."