Norris High School Alumni Association 2011 Hall of Fame

CAPT. Charles F. Craft DDS
Class of 1973

Fritz Craft grew up in a red farmhouse located on native prairie land near Highway 77. His father (Fred), was a Professional Engineer and ran a company in Lincoln. His mother (Betty Lou), operated an Antique  business. Fritz was bused to schools in Hickman, Roca, Panama, Firth and Cortland before Norris consolidated in 1971. He was the Nebraska Junior State Skeet Shooting Champion in his Senior year.  

Fritz earned his BS Degree at the University of Nebraska where he served as Vice President of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and was a member of the Cornhusker Shooting Team. He graduated from the Medical Center as a Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1980. He joined the US Public Health Service (USPHS) as a Commissioned Officer and was assigned to the Indian Health Service in Alaska. He provided dental care to Indian and Eskimo people throughout the state in rural clinics and hospitals while completing over 200 dental missions flying portable equipment into isolated villages located in the Arctic, along the Bering Sea Coast, near the Yukon River and down in the Aleutian Islands. In his free time, he became a registered wilderness hunting and fishing guide.  In 1990, he started a Health Awareness Campaign to help Native Americans improve their oral hygiene which won the National Community Health Award from the American Dental Association. This project is still successfully running today. For his efforts in Alaska, he was awarded the USPHS Outstanding Service Medal from the United States Surgeon General. 

In 1995, Dr. Craft founded the first American humanitarian dental project for disadvantaged children in Vietnam following the end of the War. He trained a team of local dentists and utilized donated equipment and supplies from the USA to establish the East meets West Foundation (EMWF) Dental Program….www.eastmeetswest.org  He motivated over 750 international volunteers from foreign countries and universities around the world to help develop a modern city dental clinic, a mobile school trailer and a rural outreach program near Danang.  To date, this global team has treated over 100,000 patients and provided more than 20 million USD worth of free care while also helping rebuild vital diplomacy and goodwill between our two countries. For this charity work, he received the “Bridge of Peace” Award from the EMWF Board of Directors. 

Dr. Craft moved to Cambodia in 2000 where he works for the International SOS Medical Company and also serves as the Chief Dental Consultant for the US Embassy in Phnom Penh. As a Reserve Officer, CAPT. Craft has been detailed to the US Military on over 50 Stability Operations in support of the Global War on Terror. He was the Dental Officer in Charge for multiple medical missions to Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. He has performed tours of duty onboard the US Naval Hospital Ship “MERCY” and the Aircraft Carrier “KITTY HAWK”. He is a 2005 executive graduate of the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii. CAPT Craft has deployed twice in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and served on US Army combat bases with the Joint Special Operations Task Force in the southern Philippines in 2006 and with the 101^st Airborne Division, Combined Joint Task Force/NATO in southern Afghanistan in 2008.

He has been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the President of the United States and the Joint Service Commendation Medal from the Secretary of Defense as well as Commendation Medals from the Departments of the US Army, Navy and Air Force.   

 In 2009, he was honored with the University of Nebraska, College of Dentistry Alumni Achievement Award. And in 2010, he received the prestigious Royal Order of the Sahametri Gold Medal and was Knighted by the Prime Minister for distinguished service to the King and Nation of Cambodia. This was in recognition of his recent work to train and mobilize the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Dental Corps.

Fritz is married and has two daughters. He hopes to return to the good life in Nebraska in the future,  perhaps to teach International Public Health Dentistry.