Harold L. Pringle

Harold L. PRINGLE Harold Lincoln Pringle, sometimes referred to as "Hal", a gentle man with a true sense of beauty and joy of life, passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning, September 26, 2007 at the age of ninety one.   Harold was kind and generous of mind and spirit.  He was a giver, not a taker.  He lived with a twinkle in his eye.  His zest for life surpassed all.  Although a well educated accomplished professional, Harold had a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from State College of Pullman, Washington, he marched to a different drum than most.  His unstated motto was, "if it is worth doing, then it is worth overdoing."  An accomplished wordsmith, Harold excelled in writing jingles.  A collection of the jingles he wrote over the years has been assembled and is soon to be bound in a book to be published and distributed to family and friends.  During his lifetime, Harold took up a number of unusual endeavors from tennis to competitive distance running to Fire Walking.  Yes, this logic oriented soul dared to challenge the laws of physics and nature by walking across a long stretch of glowing hot coals not just once, but numerous times.  A good part of Harold's life was taken up with caring for his mother in her older years.  He did this unselfishly and with vigor, the same way he attacked most things in life.   Harold Lincoln Pringle was born on February 12, 1916  in Cut Bank, Montana to his mother, Effie James Pringle and father, Alexander Pringle.  The family moved around the far west, finally settling in Spokane, Washington, which Harold liked to call home.  Harold served in the Army in the South Pacific during WWII.  Early in his career as a Civil Engineer, Harold moved to Richland, Washington, where he spent most of his life working as a Nuclear Engineer at the Hanford Nuclear facility.  Although an accomplished engineer with numerous serious responsibilities and achievements, one of his proudest accomplishments at Hanford was the following jingle he composed and delivered to a consortium of fellow nuclear engineers after the completion of a very serious presentation at a conference in New Orleans many years ago.  He paused at the end of his officially approved speech and then recited the following. "Contented Cows and Nuclear Reactors Contented cows now leave their mangers To graze in fields by heat exchangers, And there they peacefully ruminate, While others willfully demonstrate. No smoke befouls the clear horizon, No grimy plants to cast our eyes on; A pastoral of modern science, With Jersey cows in close alliance.   And after they are satiated, Their milk becomes irradiated; It's sterilized for our protection, Not pasteurized for disinfection. In purest form it leaves the udder, No wriggly germs to make us shudder; Then afterward we all turn pink, We glow in tribute to our drink."   Harold never married but is survived by his sister, Jean Swanson, as well as numerous admiring nieces, nephews and close friends he cultivated over the years.