MADISON, WISCONSIN - James Richard Prest, M.D., age 83, physician, teacher, friend, and mentor died peacefully in his sleep at home on Saturday, March 11, 2006 following a lengthy illness. Dr. Prest was born on May 3, 1922 in McCool Junction/York, Nebraska, to James Richard Prest, Sr. and Zella Foster Prest. He spent his childhood in Columbus, Nebraska, graduating from Columbus High School in 1940. Dr. Prest went on to graduate from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska in 1944 and earned his M.D. degree from Creighton University, School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska in 1948.

Dr. Prest served as a psychiatrist in the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1955 during which time he completed his residency in psychiatry (1952) at Letterman U.S. Army Hospital at the Presidio, San Francisco, California. He then became the Chief of Psychiatry at the U.S. Army Hospital, Sandia Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico until 1955.

Following his military service, Dr. Prest graduated from the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and spent many years in private practice as a psychoanalyst in Marin County, California and as a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission, and the California Department of Corrections for both San Quentin and the California Medical Facility at Vacaville. Dr. Prest joined the State of California Department of Corrections as the Assistant Superintendent of Psychiatric Services at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. He retired from state service in 1983 and continued as a consultant in managed care, psychiatric administration, the treatment of hospitalized adolescents and adults, and private practice in general psychiatry and psychoanalysis both in public and private sectors.

In 1991 Dr. Prest co-founded a national psychiatric consulting firm (Prest & Associates, Inc.) with his wife, Susan. Until recently Dr. Prest remained active in the day-to-day medical management of the firm as Chairman of the Board and Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Prest's family and friends remember him as a remarkable man, with a wonderful sense of humor, keen wit and seemingly infinite wisdom, who was devoted to his family and to his profession.