Dick Prouty, who initiated environmental coverage at The Denver Post long before it was fashionable, died Sept. 22 at his Lakewood home.
Prouty, who was 76, died of congestive heart failure.
A service is planned for 3 p.m. Oct. 15 at Jefferson Unitarian Church, 14350 W. 32nd Ave.
Prouty had covered many issues for the paper before he began covering conservation, and when he did, “he was all over it. He was in tune with the issues from the get-go,” said former Post reporter Whit Sibley.
Prouty, Joanne Ditmer and Steve Wynkoop put out the first weekly environmental section in any newspaper in the country, said Ditmer, longtime Post columnist.
“Dick was excellent. He always understood the cause and effect of environmental actions,” said Ditmer.
Prouty covered a variety of conservation and environmental issues – from noise, water and air pollution to strip mining, weather modification, wildlife issues and alternate energy sources.
Prouty was “elated when the first Earth Day was celebrated across the nation in 1970,” said Donna Logan, who worked with Prouty at The Post. He also was delighted about the start-up of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Water Act, said Logan, who lives in Leawood, Kan.
Prouty “had a great sense of humor and an upbeat attitude,” said Barbara Haddad Ryan of Denver. “He always seemed to keep his cool, no matter what the provocation,” said Ryan.
Richard Prouty was born July 20, 1930, in Ann Arbor, Mich., and was reared in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He graduated from Beloit College in Wisconsin with a major in zoology.
He worked in that field only a short time, doing enzyme research in Madison, Wis.
On Nov. 1, 1952, he married Cecelia Jane “C.J.” Kastholm, whom he had met in college.
Prouty’s first newspaper job was with the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, and he began at The Post in 1956, staying 18 years. After that, he did technical writing for an oil and gas company, put out two editions of a fishing guide, did public relations and wrote a book, “Fishing Close to Home.”
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter, Ellen Prouty of Portland, Ore.; three sons, James of Seattle, Mark of Mineral Point, Wis., and Erik of Denver; six grandchildren, and his brother, Jack Prouty of Huntsville, Texas.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it located Leawood, Kansas, in the wrong state.
