He met is future wife Lorna Rose Breseke at the John Herron Art Institute and the couple married in 1953.
He continued his studies at Columbia University to earn a doctor of philosophy in Art History in 1963.
[2] In 1960, while a student at Columbia, Craven was named Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware, and six years later, formally began the art history department there with William Innes Homer.
Craven spent the rest of his career at Delaware, rising to Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Professor Emeritus upon retirement.
[4] Craven died at his home in Newark, Delaware, on May 7, 2020, as a result of heart failure stemming from post-COVID-19 complications.