George N. Craig; Former Governor of Indiana

George N. Craig, 83, a former Indiana governor considered a rising young Republican in the mid-1950s but whose Administration was later tarnished by scandal. Craig, a lawyer elected governor in 1952, created the state’s Department of Correction and reorganized the State Department of Health to provide better mental health care. Time magazine featured him on a cover in 1955, calling him one of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s favorite young Republicans and “a swift-footed, swashbuckling lawyer politician.” Craig also oversaw an extensive highway building program that included the Indiana Toll Road. The program emphasized safety by replacing narrow bridges and widening highways. His term ended in 1956 and by state law at the time he could not seek a second consecutive term. A bribery scandal involving highway contracts broke the next year. In 1958, his highway department director and several other officials were convicted in the scandal. Craig was not implicated, but “it tarnished my Administration,” he said later. In Indianapolis on Thursday of undisclosed causes.