Prichard was a 1947 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a 1955 aeronautical engineering graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School. In 1956, he received a master’s in aeronautical engineering from Princeton. In 1960, he graduated at the top of his class at the Naval Test Pilot School.
Earlier, during the Korean War, Prichard flew 120 missions, and by 1968 was the executive officer of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ticonderoga, stationed off Vietnam and the Korean Peninsula. His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross.
At his military retirement in 1970, Prichard was director of the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River (Md.) Naval Air Station. He then became NASA’s director of safety and environmental health. By the early 1980s, he was director of the U.S. Energy Department’s safety engineering and analysis division.
Prichard’s wife of 59 years, Jeanie, died in 2007. He is survived by five children, six grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.