Dr. Alan Craig Harris

Dr. Alan Craig Harris, 69, of Norfolk, passed away suddenly Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, at his home.

He was born July 18, 1956, in Luray, son of the late William Floyd and Hallie Hiner Harris.

He graduated from Henrico High School in 1974. In junior high, he relished playing the trumpet and was always first or second chair. Throughout his high school years, he was admired for his dedication to the family business, the Varina Bi-Rite grocery store, his grit symbolized by a truncated right middle finger, the tip having been amputated by the swing of the meat locker’s steel hatch.

He attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., for two years before transferring to the University of Virginia, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1978. He graduated in 1981 with honors from Eastern Virginia Medical School prior to completing his internship in family medicine at Riverside Hospital in Newport News.

Dr. Harris was a veteran of the United States Public Health Service and served as on-call physician to the Navajo and Hopi peoples of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, and the Havasupai people of the Grand Canyon.

Between 1987 and 1991, Dr. Harris completed residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the Medical College of Virginia VCU and was chief resident during his final year. He achieved board certification in anatomic, clinical, and hematopathology and joined the faculty of MCV assistant professor of pathology from 1992 to 1997. During that time he was co-director of the hematology laboratory.

Subsequently, he transitioned to private practice at St. Mary’s hospital in Huntington, W.Va., where he met his beloved wife, prior to moving to Norfolk to continue practice within the Pathology Sciences Medical Group.

Dr. Harris loved nature, especially the undulating peaks of Appalachia, from where his people hail; cruising through the Mojave Desert on his Kawaski 250; animals, especially cats and, most recently, a colony of pampered mice; and woodworking, especially the fabrication of high-fidelity reproductions of Queen Anne style furniture. He loved to cook and spent days meticulously perfecting his protocols for smoked meats and kimchi.

Dr. Harris’s pride and joy was his son, and he was thrilled to meet his infant grandson, if only virtually. He loved and cherished his wife with whom he had spent the last 20 years. Above all, Dr. Harris will be remembered as a caring, kind, and loving family man and doctor.

Dr. Harris is survived by his wife, Dr. Boon Cheng Kok, who specializes in hematology and oncology, in Norfolk; his former wife, Susan Harris and their son Dr. Alan Craig Harris Jr. of Sacramento, Calif., a resident physician within the department of neurological surgery at the University of California, Davis, and his wife, Lindsay; grandson, Alan Craig Harris III; brothers, Will Harris, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and principal scholar at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, N.C., Mark Harris, retired master chief petty officer, United States Coast Guard, and his wife, Janet of Norton Shores, Mich., Doug Harris, J.D., an adjudication officer at the Virginia Department of Health, and his wife Julia, of Richmond; beloved aunts, Jean Hiner of Monterey and Mary Aughenbaugh of Charleston, S.C.; as well as cousins, Susan Geise, Steve LeSeur, Gary LeSeur, Cindy Hall, George Edward Lovegrove, Janice Lovegrove, Belinda Aughenbaugh, Karen McDaniel, Edgar “E.J.” Harris, Kevin Harris, and Brian Harris.

A funeral service was held Monday, Nov. 24, at Obaugh Funeral Home, McDowell, with pastor Beth Pyles officiating.

Burial followed in Hamilton Chapel Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to Hampton Roads Cancer Care Foundation, 6251 E. Virginia Beach Blvd., Suite 405, Norfolk, Va. 23502 or online at https://hrccf.org.