Thorns Craven
Thorns Craven’s connection to Eagle’s Nest began in the 70’s, when his son, Thomas, was a camper and AT Hante hiker. His grandchildren, Carter and Carly, have been enthusiastic campers for the past few years. Carter was an OA student in Spring’09, and will be a JC again in 2010. Thorns joined the ENF Board of Trustees in 2005.
Thorns is a native of Concord, NC, where he graduated high school. He received his B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 1962, and his J.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1969. He was discharged from the US Army with the rank of sergeant after three years of service in the Intelligence Corps, mostly in Germany.
He is an attorney, but for the last 18 years has practiced exclusively as a mediator, assisting parties in lawsuits to find a voluntary resolution of their disputes. He also teaches attorneys and others how to become mediators and he has been an adjunct professor of negotiations at the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. He is the immediate past chair of the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, and presently the chair of the Public Art Committee of the Winston-Salem Arts Council. He has served for more than 30 years as treasurer of the Jargon Society, Inc., a small press founded by the North Carolina poet and photographer Jonathan Williams.
Thorns and his wife Perry have b een active travelers for most of their lives, walking in the Black Forest, in the Cinque Terre, the Beara Peninsula in Ireland, hiking the High Sierra huts Yosemite, touring by bicycle in Florida, Maryland, Vermont and France, and often climbing to the cabins at the top of Mt. LeConte in Tennessee. In 2006 Thorns achieved his first “Ben,” climbing Ben Lomond in Scotland.
