Richard Dwight Prall

May 19, 2023

Richard Dwight Prall (87) of Albuquerque, New Mexico, died on Friday, May 19, 2023.

Richard was born October 4th 1935, in Milo, Warren County, Iowa, to Dwight Emerson and Pauline Crabb Prall. Richard spent his youth in Central Iowa, graduated from Newton High School in 1954, and earned a B. A. degree from Ottawa University in 1958. On June 8th, 1956, at the Belpre Baptist Church, Kansas, Richard married college classmate Rhoda Rudd. The couple moved to Albuquerque in 1958 to attend graduate school at the University of New Mexico. Son Kirk Dwight Prall was born in 1958, and daughter Kim Denise Prall was born in 1960. In 1964 Richard earned an M.A. degree from the University of New Mexico. In 1972, Richard, his wife Rhoda, son Kirk, and daughter Kim designed and built with their own hands a home in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. In 1988 after 29 years of teaching at Sandia High School, Richard retired at the age of 53. Richard researched and published three books about his family’s ancestry and edited two quarterly family newsletters for over 20 years.

Richard was preceded in death by his parents, wife of 54 years, Rhoda Rudd Prall, brother Daniel Prall of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and infant son David Zane.

Survivors include son Kirk Dwight (Tanya) Prall of McCall, Idaho; Kim (Jim) McCoy of Buffalo, Wyoming; grandsons Jondelle (Andrea) Romero of Milan, Italy; Sean Prall of Columbia, Missouri; Zane Prall (Betty) of Meridian, Idaho; great-grandchildren Maximo and Ria Romero. Richard will be interred in the Belpre, Kansas, cemetery. Arrangements are handled by French Mortuary, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Beckwith Mortuary, Larned, Kansas.

Donations can be made in Richard’s name to the Prall Memorial Scholarship Fund, Ottawa University, 1001 South Cedar, Ottawa, Kansas 66067.