Donald Prell

Donald B. Prell (July 7, 1924 – July 28, 2020) was an American World War II veteran, venture capitalist and futurist who created Datamation, the first magazine devoted solely to the computer hardware and software industry.[1][2]

Donald B. Prell
Donald Prell in his WWII U.S. Army uniform, 2009
Born(1924-07-07)July 7, 1924
Los Angeles, California
DiedJuly 28, 2020(2020-07-28) (aged 96)
Palm Springs, California
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service1943-1945 (Reserves, 1945-1960)
RankFirst Lieutenant
Unit106th Infantry Division
Battles/warsWorld War II
 • Battle of the Bulge
Awards Bronze Star
Purple Heart
Prisoner of War Medal

Early life

Prell was born in Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Los Angeles High School in the summer of 1942. In his sophomore year at UCLA, he enlisted in the US Army. In 1944, age 19, he graduated from Officer Candidate School (U.S. Army), Ft. Benning, Georgia, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, Infantry. Serving in the European Theater of Operations in command of the second platoon of the Anti-Tank Company, 422nd Regiment, 106th Division, during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944, he was wounded and captured.[3] Captured at the same time as Prell, was Richard Bordeaux Parker, who commanded the first platoon of the Anti-Tank Company. [4]

In March 1945, he was liberated by Task Force Baum during its “Raid” at Oflag XIII-B (which General George S. Patton, Jr. reported as the only mistake he made during World War II).[5] Prell’s freedom lasted only a few days as he was recaptured after attempting to locate friendly forces. A month later, he escaped from a POW camp south of Nuremberg, and found his way to freedom.[6][7]

Lt. Donald Prell 1946.

After the war, he resumed undergraduate studies at UCLA and graduated in 1948. While at UCLA, he was an active member of the American Veterans Committee.[8] Prell was a Ph.D. candidate in Psychology with Hans Eysenck’s Program Research Team at the University of London from 1948-1951.[9] It was here that he learned to use Hollerith punched card tabulation machines, the forerunner of today’s digital computers.

Professional career

During the 1950s, Prell worked with Rand Corporation futurist Herman Kahn, who later founded the Hudson Institute in New York.[10] Whilst studying for his graduate degree at the University of London (1948–1950) he was employed as a Psychologist at the West Park Hospital, Epsom, Surrey, (United Kingdom.) In the 1950s, he was associated with many of the early designers of high-speed computer input-output devices, analog to digital converters, and digital display plotters, including working with Bernard Benson of the Benson-Lehner Corporation. In 1957, working with Thomson Publications, he created Datamation, the first magazine dedicated solely to the emerging computer-data-processing industry.[1][2] In 1961, he was president, and the major shareholder, of Electro-Radiation, Inc, a Santa Monica, California firm specializing in molecular electronics and electroluminescence. [11] Later, he founded and served as President of two venture capital firms: in 1967, Union Ventures (a subsidiary of the Union Bank N.A.) and, in 1980, Imperial Ventures (a subsidiary of Imperial Bank of California). During his association with Union Bank, he was responsible for producing the bank’s first and only 30-year Strategic Plan.

Involvement with UCLA

In the 1980s, Prell founded, and was the first chairman of, the UCLA College of Letters and Science Dean’s Council.[12] Prell also served as a member of the Chancellor’s Associates during the tenure of Chancellor Charles E. Young. He was a trustee of the UCLA Foundation and was also a president of the Order of the Blue Shield, an alumni group dedicated to furthering the interest and welfare of UCLA. The UCLA College of Letters and Science annually awards three scholarships on the basis of academic merit to UCLA undergraduate students in the name of Donald Prell and his wife, Bette Prell.[12]

Prell received the UCLA University Service Award in 1977.[13][12]

Other interests

Over the course of his career Prell pursued long-standing interests in both Edward John Trelawny, a novelist and friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, and Pierre Laval, Prime Minister of France in the 1930s and again during the Vichy era. In the course of Prell's research, he authored[14] four journal articles and six books and developed extensive collections of material by and about Trelawny and Laval.[15] These research materials have been donated to two southern California libraries:

Personal life

In 1960, Prell married Elizabeth (Bette) Howe, novelist[19] and assistant editor of Datamation Magazine. They had two children: Owen Prell and Erin Semper (née Prell). He and his wife lived in Palm Springs, California from 1996.[20] Prell appeared in a 2010 documentary about the life of Nico Minardos, a Greek-American actor, titled Finding Nico, which was produced and directed by Owen Prell. Prell had been a longtime friend of Minardos from their bachelor days in Los Angeles in the 1950s and he and his wife, Bette, had named Minardos as a godfather to their children.[21]

He died on July 28, 2020, at the age of 96.[22]

Publications
  • The Inheritance of Neuroticism: An Experimental Study, Hans. J. Eysenck and Donald B. Prell, The Journal of Mental Health, Volume XCVII, July, 1951, pp. 441–465
  • Economic study of the Seychelles Islands, D. B. Prell. 1965,[23]
  • The Sinking of the Don Juan Revisited, Donald B. Prell, Keats-Shelley Journal, Volume LVI, 2007, pp. 136–154
  • Discovering Byron’s Boat (the Bolivar), Donald Prell, The Byron Journal, Volume 35, No.1, 2007, pp. 53–59
  • The Untold Story of the Survival of the Penn Central Company, Donald B. Prell, Strand Publishing, 2003 Open Library
  • Trelawny, Fact or Fiction, Donald B. Prell, Strand Publishing, 2008,[24]
  • Sailing With Byron from Genoa to Cephalonia, Donald B. Prell, Strand Publishing, 2009 Open Library
  • Lord Byron --- Coincidence or Destiny, Donald B. Prell, Strand Publishing, 2009 Open Library
  • Biography of Captain Daniel Roberts, Donald B. Prell, Strand Publishing, 2010 Open Library
  • Karl Nolde, An Artist's Life, Donald B. Prell, Strand Publishing, 2015 Open Library

Military medals and decorations
Combat Infantryman Badge
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
Prisoner of War Medal
American Campaign Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Armed Forces Reserve Medal
gollark: There are not EU representatives for Scotland.
gollark: Honestly I find people who make gender/sexuality things a massive part of their identity and go on about that to the expense of other things annoying.
gollark: I don't think we meaningfully left yet.
gollark: It's *effectively* EU at least right now.
gollark: Ireland, UK.

References
  1. "About Us - Datamation".
  2. "What does DATAMATION stand for?".
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2015-09-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. Shapiro, T. Rees (5 February 2011). "Richard B. Parker, ambassador and Middle East expert, dies at 87" – via washingtonpost.com.
  5. Patton (Ordeal and Triumph) by Ladislas Farago, 1964, p. 790. (Originally from Patton’s personal Journal, published posthumously in the Saturday Evening Post in August 1949)
  6. http://106thinfdivassn.org/stories/donald_prell.html
  7. http://www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%20XIII-B/Prell/Prell-Donald.pdf
  8. https://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2144.xml
  9. Eysenck, Hans (1 January 1997). Repel With a Cause: The Autobiography of Hans Eysenck. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9781560009382 – via Google Books.
  10. https://www.mendeley.com/profiles/donald-prell/
  11. "SM Firm Acquires Vacuum Technology". Evening Outlook. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  12. Sanjana Pai (13 August 2020). "Donald Prell remembered for dedication to UCLA, military and technological service". The Daily Bruin. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  13. "UCLA Awards: Recipients - UCLA Alumni". Archived from the original on 2016-06-01.
  14. OpenLibrary.org. "Donald Prell - Open Library".
  15. "Biographical Information". Mendeley Ltd. 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
  16. "Edward John Trelawny Collection". Special Collections at The Claremont Colleges Library. 2007-12-12. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
  17. "Guide to the Edward John Trelawny Collection".
  18. "Pierre Laval Collection". UCR Libraries. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
  19. Elizabeth Howe (aka. Bette Prell) (1 January 1995). "Italian Dreams" – via Internet Archive.
  20. "Biographical Information". Desert Sun. 2017. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  21. "Finding Nico" – via www.imdb.com.
  22. Donald Prell remembered for dedication to UCLA, military and technological service
  23. UCLA Library Catalog - Titles Archived 2013-06-26 at Archive.today
  24. Prell, Donald. Trelawny Fact or Fiction. Strand-Publishing. OL 24613632M.
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