Monday was an official government holiday. The government was closed. The stock market was closed. The courts were closed.

But somehow we knew we could find Danny Craig at work.

Yep. He generally works most days ending in "y."

Augusta's district attorney estimates that he puts in 65 hours on a light week. But that's just Monday through Friday. There are two more days ending in "y."

When there's a big trial, the hours can mount up to 14 or 15 a day, maybe 85 a week.

Despite his being in the office Monday, all of that may be about to change: Gov. Sonny Perdue called Craig last Friday to ask him to become the next Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court judge, taking over the remaining year of retiring Judge Neal W. Dickert.

Even the phone call was an adventure. Craig normally doesn't have a cell phone, preferring a pager instead. But while awaiting the governor's call, he tried to have a phone with him at all times.

He didn't. Friday afternoon, returning from a Mercer Law School board meeting in Macon, Craig had stopped at a roadside stand to buy a little something for his wife, Crystal. He left the phone in the car and missed the governor.

When they finally hooked up, Craig, 52, heard that his life and work would be changing.

The governor obviously saw in Craig what we've seen: a hard-working, successful, God-fearing man who has become one of the most respected prosecutors in the Southeast - and who will no doubt bring that solid foundation to the bench.

When asked by the governor why he wanted to be a judge, for example, Craig talked not about the honor or the responsibility or law books - he talked about people.

"I said it's in the judicial system that people come into the most direct contact with their government," Craig recalled Monday. "It's the judge who sets the tone for the perception of the quality of justice that prevails in that courtroom."

A bad tone, he added, "has a ripple effect throughout the entire community."

He's right. And we've seen what a bad tone can do. But in more recent years, the courts here have become infinitely more user-friendly and easier on victims of crime - who used to be punished a second time by a case assignment system that often left them and their cases languishing for as much as two years. And they never knew from week to week when their case might be called to trial.

That has changed, and now, Craig says, victims and witnesses can pretty much be assured their cases will work through the system within half a year rather than two years.

Things are happening to Craig quickly, too: He's been told to report to new judge orientation today in Athens at the courts' winter meeting - where he was planning to make a speech Thursday anyway on the death penalty.

Craig's 15 years as a tough but people-oriented prosecutor aren't all he'll be taking to the bench. After graduating from Mercer, he gained a wide expanse of experience in civil, criminal, commercial and domestic law - at one point having perhaps the largest practice in the area in adoptions.

We hate to lose him as a prosecutor. So many DAs are figureheads who let their underlings do the heavy lifting while they take all the credit. Craig has always given his 19 assistant prosecutors credit for their fine work, and has been a working DA himself: He just tried his 101st complex felony case last fall, and is something of an expert in trying death penalty cases. At the same time, we're not sure what other ingredients you'd want in a Superior Court judge than what Danny Craig will bring to the job.

We're delighted for him on his appointment, but we're even more pleased that the Augusta Judicial Circuit will be enhanced by a judge of his character and ability.