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Virgil Elihu Prichard of Tucson, Arizona died Saturday, August 25, in Kansas City, Missouri, following an illness of 11 months.
Mr. Prichard was born December 16, 1919 in Marietta, the son of William Alexander and Arena Elizabeth Thompson Prichard. He graduated from Marietta High School (Longfellow) in 1937. While he was growing up in Marietta, his father was the owner of the Marietta Cash Hardware, which was located on the northeast corner of Main and Third Streets. His grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Thompson, were Love County pioneers.
Mr. Prichard obtained most of his higher education at Oklahoma A&M (no Oklahoma State University), where he graduated with a degree in secondary education in 1941. He worked his way through college by working in the college library and following graduation was offered a full-time employment in the college library. While working with the library, he took graduate courses in educational administration.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Mr. Prichard resigned his job in the library in February and volunteered for military service where he entered as a private in April 1942. He served first in the Signal Corps, then the infantry, and finally in the Army Air Force. He became a radio operator-gunner on B-25 type aircraft and served in that capacity on 70 missions over occupied Europe. Mr. Prichard was discharged from the Air Force in September 1945 and enrolled in Baylor University, Waco, Texas, where he continued to work toward a master’s degree in educational administration. Before he completed that degree he was offered a job in the U.S. Foreign Service which he accepted and entered that service in September 1946. Mr. Prichard served in Foreign Service posts in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Korea, Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico.
While in Nicaragua, he met and married Charlotte Star Folks, born June 12, 1922 in Fowlers Knob, Nicholas County, West Virginia. Their marriage took place on August 2, 1956, in Managua, Nicaragua.
In October 1969, Virgil was transferred from his post as Consul in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico to the Department of State, Washington, D.C. as Deputy Chief of the Office of Foreign Claims and Legal Documents. He took advantage of early retirement and retired from the Foreign Service in May of 1970, moving to Tucson. There he became a social services worker for the Department of Economic Security of the state of Arizona. He served as social services worker until 1982 before accepting retirement from the state of Arizona. Mr. Prichard worked for about three years in the Management Office of the Foothills Mall in Tucson. When Foothills Mall was sold, he accepted a job in the management office of East Lawn Cemetery in Tucson and worked there until he retired permanently in 1989. His wife, Charlotte preceded him in death on December 2, 1991.
His hobby throughout his lifetime was genealogy and he was professional in the pursuit of this hobby in which he aided and encouraged other relatives and family members.
He is survived by a son, William Louis Prichard of Kansas City, Missouri; a niece, Phyllis Gayle Prichard Dean of Edmond; a nephew, Ronald Brantley Prichard of Oklahoma City; a sister-in-law, Mabel Sharp Prichard of Mission, Texas; and numerous other friends and relatives.
He was also preceded in death by two brothers, William Brantley Prichard in 1981 and Herman Henry Prichard in 2003.
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