Merle Pafford Prater (1922-2017)

PRATER, JANSEN, GRUNEWALD, ELLIS, HUCKABY

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 7/3/2017 at 11:46:54

Obituary from Des Moines Register, Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa, June 27, 2017.

Merle P. Prater
June 4, 1922 - June 20, 2017

Merle Pafford Prater, 95, passed away on Tuesday, June 20th at the Northridge Village Retirement Community in Ames, Iowa.

Merle was born to Forrest and Leeanna Prater in Webster City, Iowa. He graduated from Webster City High School and then attended junior college in Webster City. In 1942 he transferred to Iowa State College (now University) and enrolled in the Electrical Engineering program. While he was in the Army Reserve Officers Training Program the Navy offered its V-12 training program, he applied and was accepted. He graduated with a B.S in Electrical Engineering in 1945 and was further enrolled in Naval Officer's training at Columbia University and then Communications School at MIT.

While at Iowa State College, he met a young woman from Dubuque who would become his wife. Elsie Jansen and Merle were married in March of 1945. In that year they traveled from the Midwest, then to the East Coast and finally the West Coast to meet up with his ship in Los Angeles. He served as the communications officer on the troop transport, USS Neville. After several trips to the South Pacific, Lieutenant JG Prater was honorably discharged in Boston in 1946.

At the time of his discharge, Merle made enquiry about employment with a small business machine company just getting into main-frame computing. IBM hired him and he and Elsie settled into the Triple Cities area of upstate New York (Binghamton, Endicott and Johnson City) where they would remain until a transfer would move the family to the New York City area in 1967. While living in the Triple Cities area, Merle and Elsie began their family ending up with three sons, Jeffrey, Thomas, and Steven and one daughter, Nancy.

In 1970 Merle took advantage of an early retirement option offered by IBM and ventured back to school to pursue environmental concerns. Moving across country, again, he received additional degrees from Washington State University in Forestry and Wildlands Management. A few years later he earned a doctoral degree in education from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. While residing in Spokane, he was the first director of Whitworth College's Outdoor Environmental Learning Center, did master planning with several Native American tribes and finally opened an educational consulting business.

In the mid-1980's Merle and Elsie moved back to Ames, Iowa. Merle continued his consulting business while also getting involved in Multiple Sclerosis concerns and advocating for passenger rail and high-speed rail systems throughout the country. Merle also loved to travel, read, research and was an avid photographer. He served on the editorial boards of both the Ames Tribune and the Des Moines Register.

Merle is survived by: three children, Jeff (Mary) Prater of Ames, Steve (Dot) Prater of Ames, and Nancy (Rick) Grunewald of Pullman, WA; seven grandchildren, Allyson (Todd) Ellis, Brittany Prater, Erika Prater, Carl Prater, David (Sarah) Huckaby-Prater, Emily Grunewald and Stephen Grunewald; one great-grandchild, Gwendolyn Ellis.

Preceding Merle in death were his parents, brother Fred, sister Sharlyn, son Thomas, daughter-in-law, Jane and wife, Elsie.

The family of Merle would like to thank the caring staff at Northridge Village and the medical staff of McFarland Clinic and Mary Greeley Hospital for their great care of Dad over the years.

A private family memorial service is being planned for a future date. Memorials in Merle's name may be directed to Mainstream Living, 2012 E 13th Street, Ames, IA or The ARC of Story County, 130 S Sheldon Ave Ames, IA 50014.