- Date Of Birth: December 5, 1932
- Date Of Death: October 17, 2021
- State: Florida
Retired Colonel Richard H. (Dick) Prater, loving husband and devoted father, passed away on October 17, 2021. Dick was born in Catlettsburg, KY on December 5, 1932. He enlisted in the US Air Force out of high school in 1950, and then received an appointment to West Point in 1951. He graduated four years later with the class of 1955.
Following graduation, Dick earned his pilot’s wings at Greenville AFB, MS and was then assigned to Foster AFB, TX, where he flew F-100s until they closed the base in 1958.
Following three months of training in the C-130, Dick was assigned to the 817th Tactical Airlift Squadron in Naha AB Okinawa as an Aircraft Commander. During his 2 ½ year stay there he served more than 400 days in Southeast Asia and flew 800-plus combat hours in Viet Nam and Laos.
Having already been selected to join the faculty of the Air War College, Dick returned to Maxwell AFB in June of 1975.
Dick completed his distinguished military career when he retired in August of 1978. He was a command pilot with over 3200 flying hours.
Dick elected, upon retirement, to enter the financial planning business. Over the next four years, he worked with USPA-IRA (now First Command), EF Hutton, and lastly as Vice President of T. Ramon Perdue Associates. In 1982, he returned to the Research and Development business, joining the research faculty of the Georgia Tech Research Institute as a Senior Research Scientist.
Dick was preceded in death by his father, Burnice, his mother, Helen, and his brother, Robert. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; his sister, Lillian Smith; his daughter, Virginia Pate; his son, Richard H. Prater, Jr.; his daughter, Sandra Hudman; his son, Mark D. Prater; and eight grandchildren: Robert Patterson, Anna Hudman, Drew Hudman, Cole Prater, Madison Prater, Trinity Prater, Jessica Prater, and Fowler Prater.
Children also by marriage to wife Nancy: stepson Bobby McClure; stepdaughters Mitzi McClure, Kathy McClure, and Suzan Campbell; six grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren.
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