Bill Prigmore

<p>Retired submarine commander Bill Prigmore had vivid memories of the enemy ships during World War II, both the ones he torpedoed and the ones that aimed their depth charges at him.</p><p>Prigmore, 90, who died Sunday in his Cloverdale home as a result of renal failure, had a 26-year career in the Navy. It spanned World War II and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.</p><p>In an interview last year, Prigmore recalled seeing his first action in 1943, off the coast of Japan, as a junior grade lieutenant aboard the USS Grouper.</p><p>“It was about 15 miles from the entrance to the Japanese naval station at Yokosuka. We got detected by a convoy,” he said. “We attacked five ships in that convoy. We were given credit for sinking three.”</p><p>It was at night and the submarine was on the surface when it fired its torpedoes.</p><p>Prigmore watched from about 2,000 yards away as the ships went down.</p><p>“I saw the ships sink through the periscope. It was quite a sight,” he said.</p><p>As the plotting officer who helped track an enemy ship's course and speed, Prigmore played a direct role in the sinkings.</p><p>Nearly 70 years after those events, Prigmore had no regrets about his role in sending enemies to the ocean bottom.</p><p>“There was no doubt in anybody's mind we were doing the right thing,” he said of the fighting in World War II.</p><p>“Tankers were the prime target. They were supplying Japan with oil,” he said.</p><p>Prigmore and his fellow crewmembers also found themselves among the hunted.</p><p>“We were depth-charged twice. It's something you never forget,” he said. The first indication of an approaching depth charge he said, is “a clicking noise,” then an explosion, that “felt like it was right next door.”</p><p>Prigmore made five war patrols aboard the Grouper. After the war, his submarine duty continued as executive officer of the USS Green Fish, then commanding officer of the USS Cobbler.</p><p>He also spent time in Greece, assisting the Greek Navy with operating surplus American subs. He taught electrical engineering to students at Notre Dame and the Naval Academy, including to future POW, U.S. senator and presidential candidate John McCain.</p><p>At a McCain book signing a few years back, Prigmore introduced himself to the senator.</p><p>Prigmore said “I had you in my class at the Naval Academy,” his wife, Darlene, recalled.</p><p>McCain answered, “I wasn't the best student, was I?”</p><p>Overall, Prigmore enjoyed his naval career. But by the time he retired in 1966, he was unhappy with his assignment onboard a troop transfer ship to Vietnam.</p><p>“It was a sad type of thing to do, dropping them off there. And they didn't come back, a lot of them,” said his wife. “I guess it bothered him.”</p><p>Prigmore went on to become a certified public accountant and a stockbroker, living in San Diego and Sonoma. He settled in Cloverdale nine years ago.</p><p>Prigmore's first marriage ended in divorce and the second with the death of his wife. He was married to Darlene for 20 years.</p><p>“He was one of the most intelligent people you could ever talk to. He could talk about anything, from politics to history, geography, statistics and things he knew about languages,” she said. “He retained everything he had heard, read or thought.”</p><p>Not only did he have a great sense of humor, “he was a fine gentleman,” she said.</p><p>Last September, he was honored for his military service with a commendation from the Cloverdale City Council.</p><p>City Council member Mike Maacks, who lived next door to the Prigmores, credited Bill Prigmore with prodding him to run for election.</p><p>“He would say to me ‘sometime you have to run for City Council and get them all straightened out,'” Maacks said.</p><p>In addition to his wife, Prigmore is survived by his sons, William “David” Prigmore of Seattle, Josef Prigmore of San Diego, and Thomas Prigmore of Seattle; daughter, Mary Louise Prigmore of Seattle; step-son, Kenneth Richter of Hopland; step-daughter, Danya Nicastro of Healdsburg; three grandchildren; and four step-grandchildren.</p><p>A celebration of his life will be at 1 p.m. Feb. 4 at Brutocao School House Plaza, Hopland.</p>