E. Kemp Prugh passed away peacefully at his residence in Bethany Village on July 13, 2019. He had recently celebrated with family his 97th birthday. He is survived by his wife of 75 years, Frances Elliott Prugh in Bethany Village; his sister, Marian Prugh Nichol in Columbus, Ohio; two sons: E. Kemp Prugh in Vienna, Virginia, and Thomas Elliott Prugh in Eugene, Oregon; a daughter-in-law, Evanne Browne (John Butterfield) in Arlington, Virginia; a grandson, Gordon Evan Prugh, and partner, Katie Coopersmith, in Vancouver, British Columbia; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Born in 1922 at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Mr. Prugh enjoyed a full and rich life that included several different professions as well as extensive travel throughout the United States and many parts of Europe. His first job (other than working on the family farm, “Ash Lawn”, during his youth) was teaching naval cadets the science of aerology and dead-reckoning navigation during World War II. After the war he taught science in the Murphysboro, Illinois, High School before joining the staff of the University of Dayton, where he taught physics and mathematics to returning veterans. Later he worked in the Flight Test Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, performing data reduction related to aircraft instrument landing systems. For three years he worked as a senior physicist at the Hamilton Watch Company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania before beginning his last job at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton. There he conducted research related to semiconductors and solid-state physics and, later, served as administrative assistant to several top research/engineering/manufacturing executives. He retired from NCR in 1984 and immediately he and his wife Fran started a 74-day, 13,500-mile road trip throughout the American west.
Earlier, they had also travelled to the Munich Olympics, visited several European countries, drove into and across portions of western Canada, and experienced passing through Checkpoint Charlie between West and East Berlin during the Cold War. Post-retirement travel included multiple trips to Scotland, Switzerland, and Austria and several driving trips that ranged across the middle of Canada to the Gaspé Peninsula and New England, from Ohio to Vancouver and back, as well as trips to various national parks—Big Bend, Arches, Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Craters of the Moon, Crater Lake, Mt. St. Helens, Yellowstone, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, Mammoth Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, and the Grand Canyon—as well as a cruise to Alaska.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, and completed all but the dissertation for a master's degree.
A memorial service for E. Kemp Prugh will take place at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, August 31, 2019 at Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church, where Mr. Prugh was an active member his entire life, serving in several official roles, and sang in the choir for nearly 30 years. A reception will follow in the Fellowship Hall. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any donations in his memory be made to the National Park Foundation (donate.nationalparks.org) or to Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church (sugarcreekchurch.org).
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