Michael E. Creighton was a generous and caring son, brother and father. He was many things to so many people. A considerate and hard working man, Mike knew how to make a person feel special. He warmed your heart with his smile and with the twinkle in his eyes when he was teasing you, remembered his sister Mary Langlinais. Mike loved to laugh and to make others laugh, as well. An avid golfer, he could often be found on the links when time allowed. But the overwhelming passion of Mike’s life was his beautiful two-year-old daughter, Kristina.

On June 5, 2002, this large Cajun family lost a very important member when Mike’s delivery van was hit by a fleeing suspect during a high-speed police chase on the interstate in Lafayette, LA. When approached by the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency about donating his organs, one of his older sisters recalled that 41-year-old Mike had said he wanted to be a donor.

In the spring of 2005, Mike's liver recipient, Candy Smith, visited the National Donor Memorial in Richmond, Va. During her visit, she found especially moving the Wall of Tears, symbolizing the tears shed by donor families as well as by grateful recipients. Inspired, Candy decided to try to meet her donor family, something she had always wanted to do but for which she previously had not been ready. Delayed first by the death of Mike's mother and then by Hurricane Katrina, she finally had a tearful but glorious meeting with her new "second family" later that fall.

As a tribute to Mike, in 2009 Candy Smith endowed the Michael E. Creighton Grant to inspire hospitals nationwide to honor their donor families through the float’s Donate Life Family Circle rose dedication program.