November 1944 – August 28, 2024
After spending the last few weeks of his life at home surrounded by loving family, Vaughn Gary (VG) Prather died peacefully on August 28, 2024.
Vaughn was born in November 1944, shortly after his father returned to active duty with the US Army Air Corps during World War II.
Raised on his grandfather’s dairy farm near Reedsburg, Wisconsin, Vaughn grew up loving everything about farming. He helped with plowing the fields, planting and harvesting crops of hay, oats, and corn; milking the cows; and tending to the poultry.
Even more than chores, he enjoyed hunting for pheasants in the farm’s sunny meadows and for deer in its shady oak woodlands. When he wasn’t hunting, he was often fishing in the many nearby lakes, streams, and rivers.
Shortly after graduating from high school, Vaughn and his young wife Donna moved to Golden, British Columbia, to carve out their own farm in the Canadian wilderness where he could be self-sufficient, hunting and fishing to his heart’s content.
He built the family’s house on the Golden Donald Upper Road in the shadow of Mount Moberly. Vaughn was a skilled carpenter and became a master of many trades. Among his many construction projects are the Mount Macdonald railway tunnel beneath Rogers Pass, the Five-Mile bridge across the Kicking Horse River, and the fire lookout atop Jubilee Mountain.
He was also in high demand as a DSF (Danger Snag Faller) whenever local wildfires threatened. For the last 15 years, Vaughn was employed by the Golden School District, where he was beloved by staff, students, and teachers alike. He never retired and worked right up until cancer made it impossible.
Hunting and fishing remained important to Vaughn throughout his life. He journeyed to Africa to add trophies of kudu, waterbuck, and oryx to those of bighorn sheep and other local big game.
An active birder, Vaughn could identify most species by their call alone. He helped monitor migrating birds in northern BC and travelled to Hawaii, Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica, where he added dozens of exotic species to his life list.
On their mountainside farm, Vaughn and Donna raised three daughters: Tammy, Tracy, and Tiffany. The girls attended school in Golden except for six years when the family temporarily relocated to a more remote corner of the province in Stewart, BC. There, Vaughn was part of the construction boom associated with the Granduc copper mine and later worked two seasons at a jade mine himself.
Vaughn is survived by those daughters: Tammy (Jeff Goodrich) of Golden; Tracy (Tony Harris) of Kimberley; and Tiffany (Shawn Mooreside) of Golden; as well as four grandchildren: Dario Prather (Tammy); Jesse and Brodie Amies (Tracy); and Sofia Prather (Tiffany).
He is also survived by one brother: Ross (Laura) Prather of Golden; and four sisters: Patricia (Steve) Koch of Madison, Wisconsin; Cheryl (Butch) Phetteplace of Safety Harbour, Florida; Ginny (Steve) Knuth of Reedsburg, Wisconsin; and Brenda (Rocky) Dobyns also from Reedsburg.
He leaves behind many other loving nephews, nieces, and cousins, as well as countless dear friends, including Vonda Foraie of Golden. His family is greatly appreciative of the exceptional support of Dr. Trina Larson-Soles and the rest of the Golden health care community.
For most of his adult life, Vaughn was curious about spirituality. His bookshelf holds a Bible and a Koran as well as literature about Buddhism, Judaism, and Hinduism. He visited India in part because of his interest in Sufism.
What most fed his soul, however, was his lifelong love of nature. It influenced where he chose to live, the jobs he took, his travels, and even his studies of religion. Wherever he considers heaven, that is where Vaughn now resides in eternal peace.
A celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, September 28.
