Obituary
Craig A. Wilcox was born in Peoria, Illinois on August 19th, 1954 to Charlotte (Eads) Wilcox and Donald C. Wilcox, who both pre-deceased him. He passed away at Hope Hospice of Cape Coral on 1/31/2020 due to complications from a yearlong battle with cancer. He graduated from Dunlap High School in Peoria in 1972. He worked for Caterpillar, Inc. for several years as a Production Line Runner after high school, but eventually joined his parents in Cape Coral, Florida to work as a Salesman in their business, Wilcox Supplies.
His true love was cars. The faster, the older, the louder, the more ostentatious the better. He eventually opened his own car, truck, and boat-engine repair shop, Craig’s Auto, due to spending more time on repairing cars than doing his “actual job” of selling for the family business. He was mostly a one-man operation and his clients loved his personal care for their cars. He had more work than he knew what to do with. When he finally closed his own doors, he went to work for Kevin Eck at West Coast Collision as his Parts Manager. He said it was the best job he’d ever had, so he stayed there for 12 years. His next stop was Kevin’s ‘Hidden Valley Estates,’ in Murphy, NC, where Craig served as the Groundskeeper. He built his own house in the estate’s community.
Craig’s other great passion was “fixing things”. He could repair anything that was broken and often made his own parts for discontinued models. An impossible repair was his favorite challenge. He was a skilled carpenter, inventor, electrician and plumber. He was a genius with numbers and knew every telephone number he had ever dialed by heart; even 20 years after the fact.
Craig is survived by 3 of his 5 siblings, and by his 3 children: daughter Kelly Wilcox of Peoria, IL; daughter Sunnie Wilcox and fiancée Caleb Smith of Cape Coral, FL; son Daniel Wilcox of Opp, AL. Also surviving Craig is his life-partner of 25 years, Margaret Horn, her children Megan Horn & Ryun Horn of Cape Coral, FL; and his best friends — Brent Lockert of Cape Coral, FL, and Dave Doerr of Maryville, TN. Craig also had 2 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
He was a unique man; kind, empathetic, humble, funny, intelligent and an unapologetic “hippie-throwback”. He will be greatly missed and was fiercely loved.
Craig working on the back porch. The only way we could get a photo of him... was ....SURPRISE!