Patricia Prosser Wales

Patricia (Pat) P. Wales

It is with great sorrow that we say goodbye to our beloved mother, Patricia Prosser Wales. She died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Fort Collins on June 2, 2025, from heart failure.

Pat was born to Robert Murtagh Prosser and Betty Ann Pitts, both journalists, in Omaha, Nebraska on January 30, 1940. Her childhood years were primarily spent in Nebraska and after that, Tokyo, when her father took a journalism job in Japan. She lived there until 1954, when the family moved to Okinawa, which was at the time under American administration (until 1972).

She joined the working world beginning with a part-time job at the English-language newspaper her father and a partner started on Okinawa, the Morning Star. In 1958, she returned to the states and enrolled at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois to be near her mother, where she subsequently met and married Robert (Bob) B. Wales on April 29, 1959. After a year in Chicago, they moved with their newborn daughter, Cecy, to Guam for a short time, and then in 1962, the family moved back to Okinawa where Bob took a job as a disc jockey at a popular English-language radio station, KSBK. Her son Robert was born there later that year.

On Okinawa, she went on to work for the military in a civil-service capacity, and she also attended the University of Maryland to complete her degree. She was a champion for women's rights and equality during her time there, and with her good friend, Marilyn, was successful in helping change military policy that discriminated against women civil-service employees by denying them on-base privileges that were available to male employees.

In 1975, the family moved back to the USA, where she and her husband both completed studies for advanced degrees at Syracuse University (her an MBA, he a JD). Following this was a nearly four-year stint in El Paso, Texas working a civilian job at Fort Bliss, Texas. She and Bob divorced in 1979 after which she moved to Arvada, Colorado. A few years later she and her second husband, Dale Bucknam, moved to Westminster Colorado, where she lived for the majority of the next four decades.

Her husband Dale passed away from cancer in 2001. She later met and married her third husband, George Haberkorn.

During most of this period of her life she worked for Housing and Urban Development, retiring in 2004. In 2024, she and George divorced and she moved to Fort Collins to live with her son Robert and his family.

Pat loved Colorado and enjoyed the Rocky Mountains, beautiful scenery, greenery, cool weather, and friendly people. She also loved returning to Japan to visit her daughter Cecy, going to Japanese festivals, making new friends, practicing her Japanese, re-visiting Okinawa and reminiscing about her childhood there. She also loved traveling with family and friends whenever she got the chance. She thinks she invented the wine cooler (her recipe: 1/3 red wine from a box and 2/3 diet Squirt, over ice) and she could only ever sing off-key.

She was preceded in death by her granddaughter, Cynthia Wales, and husband Dale Bucknam. She is survived by her daughter, Cecy E. Wales (spouse Martin Cueva) and son Robert Wales (spouse Paula Wales and daughter Hannah Wales) as well as several siblings.

Pat's smile, contagious laughter, zest for life, thirst for knowledge, adventurous spirit, kindness and the love she shared will be immensely missed by all who knew her. She was a thoughtful and fun person who always lent an ear and a kind word when you needed it. She is forever in our hearts. Rest in peace, Mom.