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Richard Terry Prather, a veteran of the United States Army who served the Nicholasville Police Department for 20 years and the Jessamine County Sheriff’s Office for nine years after his retirement from the Police Department, passed away on Sunday, August 18. 

Prather was also the husband of Renee Lawson Prather, and the father of daughter, Kylee Jo Prather; sons, Terry Prather, Adam (Alexis) Prather, Josh Prather; stepchildren, Gracie (Max) Mickey, Zachary Travis. He has several siblings including, Malinda (Jerry) Jump, Nancy (Bobby) Reed, Sandy (Donnie) Hamilton; brothers, Wilson (Joy) Prather, Jr., Jesse Glenn Prather; and 12 grandchildren.

Starting at the police department in 1992, it’s evident that Prather had a strong impact on the department and the people around him. 

Assistant Chief of the NPD, Major Matt Marshall, worked with Prather for the first five years of his career in Nicholasville. Towards the latter part of Prather’s career, he was a commander of the Drug Enforcement Unit of the NPD. 

“He was just a great guy, I mean he was popular. Really cared about his job, cared about the people he worked with (coworkers and community members). He was a firearms instructor. He really cared about sharing his knowledge and expertise. You know Nicholasville, he’s one of those guys where you’re not gonna find anybody in town that will say a bad thing about Richard Prather,” Marshall said. 

Jessamine County Sheriff Kevin Grimes also worked with Prather for many of his own years at the NPD, before they both worked at the Sheriff’s Office. Even though the two never crossed paths as teens, they both lived in Lexington before Prather later moved to Jessamine County. 

“When I came on (to the NPD team), in 1999, Richard was one of the Patrol Sergeants there and welcomed me with open arms. I had come from another law enforcement agency with 13 years of experience and was kind of fresh and new to local law enforcement. He was one of our firearms instructors,” Grimes said. “He was a caring, compassionate person but also the guy you wanted beside you when you got into a hairy situation because he knew how to do the job and he did a great job at it.”

Grimes emphasized that family was important to Prather.

 “He made sure to always provide for his kids and do those things and unfortunately because when we were working in law enforcement back then we weren’t making what I would call a livable wage so we all had part time jobs,” he said. 

Richard’s choice in side work was carpentry, and Grimes said he would often be doing carpentry side work in his time away from the Police Department. “He was really good with all the things he did with carpentry, too,” Grimes said. Marshall also said Prather was “a jack of all trades.”

After retiring from the NPD in 2013, Prather decided he wasn’t done serving the community. “That’s when he came to the sheriff’s office and wanted to continue doing what he’d done for 20 years, just at a different agency,” Grimes said, adding that Jessamine County and Nicholasville were lucky to have Prather. 

“Our thoughts are with his family,” Marshall said. “His stepson, Zach Travis, is actually one of our detectives in the drug enforcement unit so he’s kind of carrying on that tradition. But I mean, he was just a kind, professional, reliable, all the best descriptors you can have for an officer, a friend, a man, you know.” 

“He was an incredible officer, an incredible deputy, a wonderful person and very compassionate and caring.” Grimes said.