Obituary of Edward Prichard

On Monday May 20, 2019, Edward L Prichard Jr, loving husband and father, passed peacefully in his sleep at the age of 83 after a long and courageous battle with dementia. Ed was born in Jacksonville, Florida on Oct. 26, 1935. He was preceded in death by his parents, Edward Prichard Sr and Ruth Barton Prichard.Ed is survived by his wife, Jeanne, and his son, Edward III. Ed was in the ROTC at the University of Florida and graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree.After graduation, he was assigned as an officer to the Nuclear Navy under Admiral Rickover.Ed taught at the Naval Nuclear Power school in the San Francisco Bay area. He left the Navy in the early 60’s and went to work for “Think Tanks.”In the late 1960’s, Ed returned to school and obtained a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Santa Barbara. Ed and his first wife, Yvette, had a son, Edward L. Prichard III, in 1966 in Santa Barbara, California.Ed moved to Portland, Oregon in 1974.He soon met the love of his life, Jeanne Gordon, and they became inseparable.Jeanne and Ed moved in together, built a house in SW Portland, and married.Ed and Jeanne enjoyed travelling all over the world together. Ed’s professional career from the mid-1970’s until he retired included positions with Portland/Multnomah County in Information Technology (IT), Tektronix in Marketing, Oregon Health Sciences University in IT, and Portland State as an adjunct professor.He also had his own consulting practice that provided IT consulting to local and international companies.Ed was often invited to speak as part of an international high-tech speaker’s series and his talks were well received.Ed made many friends from all over the world who heard him speak at those conferences. Ed was known for his wicked wit, intelligence, wide range of interests, and his kind and compassionate spirit.Once you were a friend, you were a friend for life.All of the people who knew Ed remember that he always had a book or Kindle in his hands and read voraciously. He had thousands of books in his library ranging from military history, to technology, mysteries, and poetry. As a hobby, Ed was an amateur magician.Ed called himself Edwardo the Great when he put on informal magic shows for family and friends. He was very partial to card tricks and what magicians call, ‘sleight of hand’ moves.He shared his magic skills with Edward III. Ed was inherently a lifetime learner and educator and was passionate about sharing his knowledge.He was a consummate story-teller.Ed was one of a kind and will be sorely missed. If you wish to make a donation in Ed’s memory, please click on the link below to the Oregon Food Bank.Every $10 = 30 meals! https://give.oregonfoodbank.org