Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Former banker, civic leader Gaylord Prather dies a 81

Gaylord K. Prather, a Las Vegas banker and civic leader of the 1960s, has died at a local hospital. He was 81.

Prather, who served as president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and Desert Inn Country Club, died Saturday of complications from recent surgery.

Services for the 44-year Las Vegas resident will be 2 p.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary Cheyenne Chapel. Graveside services will follow at Palm Valley View Park.

When Prather resigned as vice chairman of First National Bank of Nevada (now First Interstate Bank) in September 1971, his name, prominent in Las Vegas finance news throughout the 1960s, disappeared from local headlines.

A real sportsman

"He just retired after getting all of his benefits," said Bernice Crawford, who became Prather's companion shortly after his wife, Ethel Mary, died in 1981.

"He was a real sportsman who loved to go fishing off Vancouver Island and hunting in Montana. He had a motorhome he used to travel to different parts of the country. He really enjoyed life."

Crawford described her friend as "a quiet man" who treasured his privacy, enjoyed eating at restaurants and "played a lot of golf. He was one of the nicest men you would want to meet -- outgoing and kind."

Longtime Las Vegas banker E. Parry Thomas, via phone interview from his horse ranch in Sun Valley, Idaho, remembered Prather as "an outstanding man and effective banker" who was very active in community affairs.

"It surprised us when he decided to quit, even though he told me he had made up his mind to work up to a point where his benefits matured and then take an early retirement," said Thomas, chairman of Valley Capital Corp., parent company of the former Valley Bank (now Bank of America).

"I admired him a lot as a good competitor and a square-shooter -- and I told him that years ago."

Thomas, who played a key role in financing many Las Vegas casinos during his years as chief of Valley Bank, worked on many civic projects with Prather.

Banking career in Oregon

Born May 31, 1914, in Union, Ore., Prather attended Eastern Oregon College and the University of Oregon before enrolling at the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington.

Prather began his banking career in 1941 at the First National Bank of Portland (Ore.) La Grande Branch as a bookkeeper and teller.

Following a two-year stint in the Army during World War II, Prather returned to the banking industry, where he coordinated First National branches throughout Eastern Oregon. He became personnel officer in 1950 and assistant vice president in 1954.

He also was an executive with Transamerica Corp., in San Francisco, and the First National Bank in Wyoming, among other financial institutions, before becoming a member of First National Bank of Nevada's board of directors in 1962 as a vice president.

In 1967, the year Prather was named to the bank's newly created post of vice chairman, he became president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

Predicted prosperity in LV

In a July 28, 1968, guest column in the SUN, Prather predicted a bright economic future for Clark County, which he noted had an "economic imbalance" to that point.

"Our community will prosper at a fantastic rate when compared to any other," he wrote. "Our image has enjoyed a welcome reversal from the past. No longer does the outside investor look at the area with ridicule and reluctance.

"People generally are accepting the 'Entertainment Capital of the World' as a normal prosperous area with opportunity that abounds."

In addition to Crawford, Prather is survived by a son, Forrest Prather of Half Moon Bay, Calif., and a sister-in-law, Shirley Prather, of Red Bluff, Calif.

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