Craig Tarver was born in Syracuse, New York to Carl and Shirley Tarver. He spent his childhood in Syracuse and attended Central Tech High School where he played football and baseball. After graduating high school in 1965, Craig attended Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY where he graduated with a degree in Chemistry and was the president of Omicron Pi Omicron fraternity. He then attended John’s Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD for grad school and earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry. Craig moved across the country to Palo Alto, CA where he worked at Stanford Research Institute International for 4 years before he was hired at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in 1976. He would go on to work at LLNL for over 40 years and was published in over 200 scientific papers. Craig’s scientific career concluded in 2021 when he received the American Physics Society’s George E. Duvall Shock Compression Science Award.

Outside of his career in Physics, Craig was a Captain in the Army reserves and a youth baseball and football coach. He was a huge fan of Syracuse University football, basketball and lacrosse. Craig was most proud of his family and was a wonderful person, father and grandfather. He is survived by his wife Virginia, brothers Terry and Wayne, sister Cheryl, sons Jason and James, daughters Jill, Nina and Liz, son in-law Bret, daughters in-law Katie and Sarah, grandchildren Jaxon, Merrick, Elijah, Keegan, Lea, Kade and Tyler and his dogs Jasper and Gira.     

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