Dr. James and Lillian Kraft Graduate Fellowship Endowment

Born in Bowdle, S.D., on May 18, 1918, Dr. Kraft grew up a son of a dairy farmer during the Depression. He left for Washington State University with just $50 in his pocket, tutoring football players and working odd jobs until he graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine in 1941.

After college, Dr. Kraft joined the Air Force and became a major in the Veterinary Corps during World War II. Stationed in Randolph Field, Texas, he met the station's dental hygienist, Lillian Raviloa, after setting up an appointment for a cleaning, and asked her out. She fell in love with his humor.

"When we dated, we never stopped laughing," she said. "He could come up with the funniest one-liners out of the blue."  They married five months later, moving after the war to Seattle, where he opened his practice, Seattle Veterinary Hospital on Westlake Avenue, and later the Ballard Veterinary Clinic.

Dr. Harmon Rogers, director of WSU's Veterinarian Teaching Hospital, called Dr. Kraft an icon. "I've spent 28, 29 years in the profession and I remember Jim as someone to look up to and hopefully someday be like," he said. "He was someone everybody admired."

Stan Coe, a retired veterinarian, said Dr. Kraft had been a mentor to him. He called Dr. Kraft compassionate and considerate, and said that if a colleague was in need, Dr. Kraft was the first to offer his help.

Besides helping establish one of Seattle's first veterinarian emergency clinics in Seattle, he helped a colleague with polio run his practice by treating parakeets and other birds. Thomas Kraft remembered how his father had taken over a practice when a colleague and his wife were killed in a private-plane crash. Dr. Kraft kept the clinic until the man's son, a junior in veterinary school, finished college and could take over the family business.

"That was the way he was," Coe said. "There wasn't anything he wouldn't do to help people. He was really my idol."

Dr. Kraft was active in the American Veterinary Medical Association, having served as both state and King County chapter president. He was a devoted Cougar fan and began raising funds for the college's foundation in 1979.

In 1996, the university gave him the Weldon B. Gibson Distinguished Volunteer Award, the foundation's highest honor.

"There was 400 people there to celebrate with him," Coe said. "He was so proud and humble about it because it was such a surprise."

Friends and family said Dr. Kraft was personally frugal but generous with others, whether it was treating sick animals for free or giving out compliments and encouragement. His wife said he held deep conversations with perfect strangers.

"He always treated everybody like they were somebody. There was nobody below him," she said. "He made everyone feel that they were the greatest, always finding a nice thing to say to people."

He would frequently tell Lillian "It never hurts to make anyone feel good." Dr. and Mrs. Kraft are survived by five children and multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.