Michael Lucia

Today, October 31, I was looking up Craig's address to send him a card and was very surprised to see this report of his passing:

Craig Francis Kodera

Born May 1956

Deceased in Mar 2021 in Lake, FL

Craig and I were pals all the way back to 1965 when we both moved into the new Stardust tract in Fountain Valley.  We went to Harper together and built model airplanes together.  His were always much better constructed than mine.  Craig gave the graduation speech for our class ('70) from Harper.  We were in Lynn Sherman's FVHS aviation class together in the fall of 1973.  In the last week of the class Mr. Sherman announced that Craig had earrned his FAA private pilot license.  

After many years, and many hours of flying for both of us, I reconnected with Craig and learned that he was an accomplished aviation artist (https://www.pricklypeargalleries.com/s-160-kodera-craig.aspx [text below]), author and illustrator (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18873977-those-67-blues & https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16254990-from-props-to-jets & https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1589805704/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1).  After corresponding for a couple of years, I asked if he would paint a picture for me.  He agreed and told me he would charge me the "friends and family" rate.  We talked over different possibilities for the design of the painting and he sent me a pencil sketch.  We collaborated and soon I had a great painting hanging in my house.

All the best, Craig.  Thanks for the memories, you are greatly missed.

Kodera, Craig

Aviation is this artist’s living. Painting is a joy and a choice; not his career. Craig Kodera is an airline pilot, so each of his paintings reflect an intimate knowledge of how it feels to fly and what it looks like out the cockpit. "I paint what I see," he says,"and my office window is at 35,000 feet."  An appreciation of aviation came easy, since Kodera was raised in what he terms an "aviation family," which included an uncle who flew with the famous Doolittle Raiders during World War II. At an age when most teens were trying to ace the driver’s test, Kodera had earned his private pilot’s license. A love of painting also came early. Kodera started seriously studying it at fourteen.  He graduated from UCLA with a degree in mass communications and spent a year as a commercial artist before joining the Air Force Reserve, where he was assigned to the Air Rescue Service and then the Strategic Air Command. There his knowledge of air war history grew while he logged literally thousands of hours flying. -Prickly Pear Galleries

Matt Kroeger

Rest in Peace Craig.

Kathleen Puchalski (Rocheleau)

Rest In Peace Craig.

Gregory Town

Craig was one of my best friends and we shared an interest in aviation and scale model building but lost touch with each other around 1977.  Decades later I saw one of his pantings hanging in an art gallery in Laguna Beach and tried unsucessfully to reconnect with him.  I mentioned this to my other long time best friend John Wilson who found him on a social media platfrom and facilitated our reconnection just a few years ago. Now they both have joined the ever expanding In Memory list of our class mates. When I didn't get the usual Christmas card last year and found his phone number was disconnected I suspected Craig had passed away.  If not for Mike Lucia's efforts in creating this platform much of this would not of happened and for that I am very grateful for the reconnection and closure it has provided. 

Teresa Fritzler

I remember Craig Kodera's name, but I don't remember knowing him in school. Mike Lucia told me about him in the last couple years, about his art career as a aviation artist. He sounded amazing. I'm really sorry to hear that he's gone. We will have to wait awhile to meet each other. Until then I will look for all of your comments and stories about who Craig was.

Michael Lucia

This classroom photo from 1965 includes several FVHS '74 classmates...

Row 1: ?, Joe Valenti, ?, Roy?, ?, ?

Row 2: ?, Ned?, ?, Victor Fulger, Gina Ferrara, Tanya Ignowski (R.I.P.)

Row 3: ?, ?, Mike Lucia, Debbie Rickerson?, ?, Craig Kodera (R.I.P.)

Row 4: Debbie Miller, Karen Hirshman, Bonnie Lee, Russ Caigle, ?, ?

Row 5: ?, ?, Denise Murphy, Scott Ingels

Row 6:, Kathi Puchalski, Mr. Daigle, Miss Read, Moira Anderson

Gregory Town

Found this tribute to Craig on You Tube.

(196) THE ART OF CRAIG KODERA - Tribute to a life-long friend and Master Artist - YouTube

My wife found his church's memorial service on FACEBOOK at this URL: https://www.facebook.com/NewLifeChurchPCA/videos/4085200894877765/

[You have to copy and paste the URL into your browser, some links won't work on some pages - ML]

Cary Staggs

I was very sad to hear of the passing of Craig.  After discovering this web site a few years agao I was able to reestablish contact with Craig.  We shared many stories of our past careers as both pilots and lead airlift engineer.  Criag, Greg Town and I spent many hours discussing our futures with aviation during our Hi School years and I was happy to hear that Craig was able to make his dream come true.  I was aware that Craig was a very accomplished avaiton artist even back in Hi School.  I will miss him!  Farewell old friend!

Christina Smith (Bent)

Craig took me to junior prom. We stood on the balcony at the Airporter  and watched the planes come and go at John Wayne. Craig described each plane to me, name, engine, speeds, etc. I still love to watch planes.

Craig was such a sweet guy. We dated junior year. For my birthday he brought me a dozen red roses and a Ruby necklace. Then, I didn't see him again for the rest of the summer. Come fall we were in class and I asked him,"where'd ya go?" He was at art shows. 🥰  I KNOW Craig is at peace. ❤️