Katherine Buchanan Prugh

December 13, 1920 - January 18, 2021

Katherine Buchanan Prugh, 100, of Walnut Creek, California, passed away in her home on January 18, 2021. Known affectionately as “Bunty,” she always called Northern California home but lived a nomadic life dictated by her family’s military service. Born to Marie Carter and Patton Buchanan, of Piedmont, California, Bunty started school in California but her father’s naval career soon had the family on the move. In 1929 the family sailed to Hawaii, assuming quarters at the Navy base at Pearl Harbor. Three years later, the family set sail again, this time for China: a favorite family photo shows Bunty, with younger siblings Patty and John and their parents shipboard, on the SS President Wilson, departing Honolulu heavily laden with leis. Bunty attended the Navy School at the Russian Club in Chefoo, followed by boarding at the Bishop Brent School in Baguio, the Philippines. She returned stateside for a year in Newport, Rhode Island, before the family returned to Piedmont in 1936. She graduated as a member of the Piedmont High School class of 1938. A proud Cal Bear and a member of the Mu Chapter of Chi Omega sorority, Bunty earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Decorative Arts and Interior Design from the University of California Berkeley.

After graduation in 1942, she married George “Ship” Shipley Prugh, Jr., and traded her naval life for the life of an Army officer’s wife. At the end of World War II, they returned to Piedmont so Ship could resume legal studies that had been interrupted by the War. Following his graduation from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, they returned to full-time Army life and Bunty embraced her new role as the wife of a “JAG” (Judge Advocate General’s Corps) officer. They traveled widely, living in duty stations as varied as Washington, DC, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, Paris, France, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and Wetzlar, Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart and Heidelberg, Germany, always returning to the Bay Area for family visits in between duty tours. Wherever they lived, Bunty used her artistic talents and organizational skills to support and enhance their military community. At times, military duties imposed periods of separation, some anticipated and others not: in 1964, Bunty was among the last military family members to be evacuated from Saigon, Vietnam. The couple would not be reunited until the summer of 1966, but the separations strengthened their bonds. They formed a very successful military family. Her children joke that while their father was the Major General, their mother was the family’s sergeant major, making sure everything was done properly. After Ship retired from the Army in 1975, and joined the faculty at Hastings, they moved to Orinda, California, where they were both active in Hastings Alumni activities. Ship passed away in 2006, and shortly thereafter Bunty moved to Walnut Creek, where she lived near her sister Patricia Armstrong.

In addition to many JAG Officers Wives Clubs, Army Community Relief organizations, Girl Scouts troops and American Red Cross chapters, where she served in numerous leadership positions, and the Chi Omega Alumni Association, Bunty was committed to the Pepper Branch of the Children’s Hospital Oakland, now UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, serving as branch president, and then on the board of directors of the branches. She was a contributing sponsor to the “Prugh lecture,” an annual lecture on military legal history given in General Prugh’s honor at the U.S. Army JAG School in Charlottesville, Virginia. A voracious reader, Bunty was a devotee of The PBS News Hour and the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. In retirement she became an avid bridge player, remaining active in several weekly bridge groups in Orinda and Walnut Creek until shortly before her death. Preceded in death by her husband and her granddaughter Kirstin Beach Chiasson, Bunty is survived by her daughters, Stephanie Beach (David) of Palo Alto, California and Virginia Patton Prugh (Damien Walsh) of Norfolk, Virginia as well as by grandchildren Josh Beach (Bärbl), Duff Beach (Emily), Meaghan M. Walsh, and KC Walsh. Bunty was the beloved great grandmother of Kate and Matthew Beach, Libby, Drew and Paul Chiasson, and Alexander Islam-Walsh.

Bunty will be laid to rest next to her husband in Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that gifts in Bunty’s memory be made to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, to the American Red Cross, or to a charity of your choice.