Pribble, former newspaper ad salesman, dies at 65

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | 8:59 a.m.

Donald F. "Don" Pribble, a mentor to other recovering alcoholics and a longtime local ad salesman who returned to college to earn a degree 31 years after receiving the first Las Vegas Sun scholarship, died Wednesday of cancer. He was 65.

Services for the lifelong Southern Nevada resident were to begin at 1:30 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary-Downtown. A graveside service was to follow at Woodlawn Cemetery.

Pribble, the younger brother of late Las Vegas High and University of New Mexico football star Dick Pribble, graduated in 1958 from Rancho High and received the first Las Vegas Sun Scholarship established by late Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun.

Pribble often called it his first big break in what would become a roller-coaster life haunted by alcohol, which he said cost him many jobs. He often told friends that one of his proudest accomplishments was that he had remained sober for the last 27 years of his life.

During his career, he sold ads for the Sun, the old North Las Vegas Valley Times, the Review-Journal, the Nifty Nickle and other publications.

Born March 21, 1940, in Las Vegas, Pribble was an Army veteran.

In the mid-1980s, Pribble went to the Sun offices to ask then-Assistant to the Publisher Ruthe Deskin for a sales job.

Ironically, it was Deskin who had selected Pribble as the initial Sun scholarship winner -- a $2,000 gift that fell by the wayside when Pribble dropped out of the University of Nevada-Reno after two years.

Deskin gave Pribble a job selling advertising for the Nellis Air Force Bullseye newspaper, which the Sun at the time was contracted to publish.

"Ruthe would always give people a second chance, and sometimes more," Pribble said in a Feb. 20, 2004, Sun story six days after Deskin's death. "That helped save me."

At Deskin's funeral, Pribble signed her memorial book, adding a short note thanking her and Greenspun for their help and for the Sun scholarship.

While working for the Bullseye, Pribble returned to college and in 1989 earned a communications degree from UNLV.

"I felt I owed it to Ruthe and Hank to get my degree for the big break they gave me early in my life," Pribble said after Deskin's funeral.

Pribble was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and former three-time president of the Samaritan House for male alcoholics.

He is survived by his wife, Judy Pribble; a son, Pryse Pribble; a stepson, Gregory Beldsoe; a stepdaughter, Amanda Sollitto; lifelong friend "Poppa" Leo Berney; and two grandchildren.