Craig R. Brewer

It is often said that life is lived in the small moments. Craig understood that better than most. He had an ability to find joy in the everyday — a meal cooked for family and friends, sitting by a campfire with the boys, a day on the boat fishing, watching the Red Sox, or simply helping someone who needed a hand. For Craig, these weren’t the moments in between life’s big events; they were the moments that mattered most.

After an unexpected cardiac event, Craig passed away on October 17, 2026 at the age of 46. This tragic loss leaves behind a family and community who love him deeply and have a lifetime of memories of Craig filled with adventure, laughter, generosity, and love.

Craig was born in Louisiana and his affinity for Bayou food stayed with him through the many places he lived and traveled throughout his life. Craig’s adventures began after he joined the military. While stationed at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina, mutual friends introduced him to Aimee, convinced the two would be a perfect match. After their first meeting, Aimee returned home to her roommates and announced, “I think I just met the man I’m going to marry.” As it turned out, she was right.

Together, Craig and Aimee built a beautiful life filled with love, adventure, and a shared curiosity about the world. Their journey together began in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where they purchased an old 1782 colonial home, which Craig renovated. From there, life took them to Salt Lake City & Park City, Utah and then to Davis, California, before bringing them back to the East Coast to be near family in Rhode Island. Wherever they lived, they embraced the idea of being “tourists where they lived,” exploring nearby towns, discovering hidden gems, and finding adventure in their own backyard.

Craig was creative and talented with his hands. He loved designing, building, and bringing ideas to life, whether it was a beautiful piece of furniture, custom kitchen cabinets, a Zeus name tag for his son’s history class, or one of the many cutting boards he made for Aimee’s various seasonal needs and themes :) What began as a passion for creating things eventually became his career when he founded CRB Design & Build. He took great pride in his craftsmanship and found genuine satisfaction in making something beautiful, functional, and built for generations.

Above all else, Craig was an extraordinary father to his two sons, Quinn and Aiden. His love for his boys was boundless, and so much of his life was spent giving them the gifts of adventure, curiosity, independence, and a deep appreciation for the world around them.

When the boys were young, Craig embraced being a stay-at-home dad, a role that brought him tremendous happiness. He was the dad organizing PE at Willett Elementary School, taking groups of kids on adventures to Putah Creek and the Truckee Bike Park, and, during their years in Utah, making countless trips to the Hogle Zoo and children’s museum. He introduced Quinn to mountain biking with one of the earliest balance bikes and passed along his own love of exploring the outdoors to both boys. He treasured the everyday moments of fatherhood, whether teaching the boys something new or finding a creative solution to a problem — including once deciding that smearing avocado on baby Aiden’s face was the perfect remedy for his eczema.

Craig believed some of life’s best experiences happened off the beaten path. During the family’s years out West, he took every opportunity to explore national parks, mountain trails, and remote corners of the country. From Yosemite and Joshua Tree to Moab and Death Valley — a destination he always wanted to visit and turned into a favorite family trip.

Among his most treasured memories were camping trips in his Land Rover with Quinn, Aiden, his brother-in-law Zach, and nephews Jonny and Franky. Together, they explored all over including his favorites in Moab and the Lost Coast Trail in Northern California. Craig even convinced Aimee to join one summer trip through Oregon and Washington, with the compromise that they could travel in an RV rather than a rooftop tent. When the family welcomed their dog Bode, Craig thought the perfect introduction to family life was to take him straight on a camping trip with the boys.

He was immensely proud of who Quinn and Aiden were becoming. With Quinn, he shared a love of adventure and the outdoors, from early mountain-biking rides to camping trips and exploring new places together. One of his recent joys was driving to Charleston to help Quinn move into college, excited for this next chapter in his son’s life — and perhaps equally excited that Quinn had chosen a city with so many of Craig’s favorite Southern foods.

With Aiden, Craig loved talking about the future, listening to his entrepreneurial ideas, and imagining where life might take him. He also treasured their everyday time together, including teaching Aiden to play pool. Craig often talked about his dream of one day buying an EarthRoamer and traveling around the country to visit Aiden wherever he happened to be living. It was a dream that perfectly captured Craig’s spirit: adventurous, curious, and always centered on family.

And then there was Craig’s cooking.

Whether he was perfecting pulled pork on his Big Green Egg, preparing filet mignon with sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions on an ordinary Tuesday night, or making the boys their favorites — biscuits and gravy, red beans and rice, and jambalaya — cooking was one of the many ways Craig showed his love.

He could happily spend an entire day preparing a meal, especially when it meant gathering friends and neighbors around the table. During the family’s years in Davis, California, their Parkside neighbors were frequent beneficiaries of his incredible cooking and he loved perfecting pizza on the BGE for his family, especially his mother-in-law Cynthia who he adored. Most recently, Craig prepared all the food for Quinn’s graduation party, another opportunity to bring together the people he loved. For Craig, good food was never just about the food. It was about the people who shared it.

That same generosity and thoughtfulness extended far beyond his kitchen. Craig was the person friends and neighbors called when something needed fixing, furniture needed moving, or someone simply needed help. He gave freely of his time, talents, and energy, never expecting anything in return. He was also the husband who would drive across Rhode Island to the one nontoxic dry cleaner because he knew it mattered to Aimee, even though there were plenty of others closer to home.

Craig had a very dry sense of humor and a talent for delivering jokes that often couldn’t be repeated in polite company. He could make people laugh with a perfectly timed comment or an observation that was uniquely his own.

Craig was a proud United States Marine whose service included working on CH-53 helicopters, an assignment at Quantico, Virginia, supporting the Marine One program, and a deployment to Iraq. Even during his military service, Craig’s adventurous spirit was never far away. While deployed, he called Aimee one evening and casually asked, “So, I’m going to be in Malta for two days in two days. Would you want to come meet me?” After figuring out exactly where Malta was, Aimee and her Aunt Cathy jumped on a plane to meet Craig during his ship’s stop in Malta for an unforgettable two-day adventure. It was just one of the many spontaneous experiences that made their life together so memorable.

Craig had a way of showing his love that didn’t always require words. He showed it by spending hours preparing a favorite meal, fixing something before anyone asked, driving out of his way to make life a little easier for someone he loved, or planning the next adventure with his family. His generosity was never about recognition or expecting anything in return. It was simply who he was. He found genuine happiness in taking care of others, and those countless small acts of love became the foundation of the beautiful life he built with his family.

Perhaps one of Craig’s greatest legacies is what he taught Quinn and Aiden simply by the way he lived. They grew up watching a father who demonstrated what it means to love people through your actions, to be generous with your time, to explore the world with curiosity, and to find joy in taking care of others. Those lessons, and the countless memories they made together, will stay with them forever.

Craig understood that a meaningful life wasn’t measured by grand gestures, but by the countless small moments of love, adventure, kindness, and connection along the way. And he gave all of us so many of those moments.

Craig is survived by his wife, Aimee, their two sons, Quinn and Aiden, his right hand man (dog) Bode and so many friends and family who love him. 

Visitation will be held on Friday, October 23, 2026 from 9-10am followed by a funeral service with Military Honors at 10am in the NARDOLILLO FUNERAL HOME & Crematory - SOUTH COUNTY CHAPEL, 1111 Boston Neck Road, Narragansett. Burial will be private in RI Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Exeter. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Friends Way, 765 West Shore Road, Warwick, RI 02889. www.friendsway.org