George Frank Prawitt, 92, of North Ogden, passed away peacefully of natural causes on September 16, 2026, at the William E. Christoffersen Salt Lake Veterans Home in Salt Lake City.

George was born June 5, 1934, in Ogden, Utah, to Frank Ferdinand and Martha Posnien Prawitt. He graduated from Ogden High School. On September 2, 1953, he married his sweetheart, Diana Van Alfen, in the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Diana preceded him in death on May 27, 2009.

George served two years as an enlisted soldier in the mid-1950s, including a tour in Japan. He then earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Utah State University and worked as an engineer for Boeing in Seattle before returning to the Army as a commissioned officer in 1961. He gave 20 years to the Army as a career officer, retiring in 1981 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. A Signal Corps officer and Army aviator, he flew two combat tours in Vietnam in the O-1 Bird Dog, the small reconnaissance aircraft that carried its pilots low and slow over hostile ground. His assignments took the family to Fort Rucker, Alabama; Karlsruhe, Germany; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Yokota Air Base, Japan; and Cheyenne, Wyoming. He later worked as a civilian electrical engineer at Hill Air Force Base.

His faith and his family were the center of everything. George and Diana gave their lives to one another, to their children and grandchildren, and to the gospel. He served as a Branch President during his military years, and in the late 1990s he and Diana served a senior mission together in the Ogden Inner-City Mission, which brought them both great joy. After Diana’s death, George poured much of his remaining strength into the same work, serving for years as an ordinance worker in the Ogden Temple and volunteering many seasons at the Church’s peach orchard in North Ogden and at the Ogden Cannery.

If someone needed something, George was there. Well into his eighties he could be found on his hands and knees in a widow’s yard, digging up sprinkler heads to get her system working again. He made a habit of rounding up the widows in his ward and driving them to concerts and other outings, so that no one sat home alone.

In some ways George was a farmer at heart. He would put on a straw hat and a flannel shirt to drive his tractor around his fields in Star Valley, Wyoming, a place he loved for its quiet and its beauty, and he would wear that same outfit to work his garden out back in North Ogden. He spoke with real wonder about how you could put a seed in the ground and it would come up and give you tomatoes, corn, and cucumbers. He enjoyed golf, but his great hobby was restoring Model A Fords, which he showed with the Ogden Model A Club in parades around the valley.

George was a joke teller, and he delighted in making people laugh. He could also be stoic, stubborn, and a little ornery, and those who loved him best would say so with a smile. Beneath that was a tenderness his family always knew was there, and in his final months it came nearer the surface than ever. He spoke often of looking forward to being reunited with his sweetheart.

George and Diana raised four children, Gregory G. (Debra) Prawitt, Laurie Diana (Michael) Foley, Carolyn (Kevin) Whittington, and Douglas F. (Meryll) Prawitt. He is survived by three of his children, 24 grandchildren and 58 great-grandchildren, with more still arriving; and his sisters, Linda Booth and Alice Green. He was preceded in death by his wife, Diana; his daughter, Laurie; his granddaughter, Kindra Foley; his great-grandson, Jameson Foley; and his sister, Doris Ford.

The family is deeply grateful to the staff of the William E. Christoffersen Salt Lake Veterans Home, who cared for George so lovingly and so well. We are also grateful to the members of his North Ogden Ward, who watched over him during the years he remained in his own home, especially two good friends, his ministering brother Marc Borella and his former bishop Bob Taggart, as well as the many other caregivers who served him along the way.

Funeral services will be held Friday, September 25, 2026, at 11 a.m. at Lindquist’s North Ogden Mortuary, 2140 North Washington Blvd. Friends may visit with family on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. and Friday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the mortuary. Interment, Ben Lomond Cemetery, North Ogden where military honors will be accorded.

Condolences may be shared at: www.lindquistmortuary.com.