An estate commitment from Miller Cragon, T’47, is helping Sewanee provide financial aid to the largest class at the School of Theology in many years. Read more about Cragon, his life in Chicago, and his post-Sewanee career.

Over the past two years, the School of Theology has received substantial gifts from the estate of the Rev. Canon Miller Cragon, T’47, who died in 2016. Cragon was born in Ruston, Louisiana, and earned a BA from Tulane University in New Orleans and an MA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In the late 1940s, Cragon attended the School of Theology. He was ordained as a deacon in 1946 and priest in 1950. 

From 1978 to 1990, Cragon served as Canon to the Ordinary for Education and Ministry for the Diocese of Chicago. Bishop Frank Griswold made him honorary canon when he retired in 1990. 

Cragon was married to Gregorio Alvarado, also of Chicago. The couple met in 1967 and married in 2011. 

Gifts made to Sewanee through the Cragon estate have been designated to support the dean’s discretionary fund. This year, with one of the largest classes in years, Dean James Turrell will apply a significant portion of the fund to seminary scholarships. "Planned gifts are an excellent way to support the School of Theology,” notes Bess Turner, director of Development, Alumni, & Church Relations. “Even a small amount can make a difference." To make a gift to support any program at the School of Theology, from EfM to financial aid to the School’s greatest need, click here.