Parker and Mabel Preble: decades of dedication

By Libby James
Correspondent

About Community Cornerstone Nominations

Parker and Mabel Preble have no regrets. At ages 82 and 83, they look back with pleasure at the richness of lives spent dedicated to challenging careers, raising four children and serving their community.

While they now enjoy the luxury of some free time, they continue to volunteer in the community they love.

There are plenty of plaques around the Prebles' house thanking one or the other of them for various kinds of service over the years, but their favorite is a "lifetime service award" presented to them jointly by the Fort Collins Human Relations Commission in May.

Their dedication to community service goes way back to the 1940s when they attended high school together in Oak Park, Ill., and made their mark as debaters, in student government and in sports.

Mabel completed a year of college at the University of Wisconsin while Parker finished high school. Parker then enrolled at the University of Colorado, and Mabel, after a stint at Rosary College, worked in a Buick plant in Illinois in a wartime job.

Parker fulfilled his naval obligation as a commissioned officer in Guam, returning to CU in 1946 to complete his undergraduate studies. By this time, the high school sweethearts had married and were parents of a son.

Two years later they were off to Denver where Parker attended medical school and Mabel worked a late shift at Rose Memorial Hospital. A second child arrived while Parker did an internship in South Dakota and the following year their third child was born in Missoula, Mont., where Parker began his career as a family physician.

When they settled into Durango a year later, Mabel found time to pursue classes in psychology at Fort Lewis College and Parker extended his medical practice, serving as tribal doctor on the Southern Ute Reservation and as interim director of public health. After five years as a general practitioner, he was ready for a new challenge and moved the family to Denver where he pursued a residency in psychiatry. Now the mother of four, Mabel continued her education, graduating with a degree in psychology from the University of Denver. Parker found time to serve the community as a Boy Scout leader and Sunday school superintendent.

The Prebles came to Fort Collins in 1961, where Parker entered private practice and almost immediately became psychiatrist for the Colorado State University Student Health Center and medical director of the Larimer County Mental Health Clinic. In 1964, he was appointed by the mayor to help form the Human Relations Commission. He served over the years as advisor, commission member and chairman.

Mabel, meanwhile, was busy earning a graduate degree in counseling at CSU, followed by employment as a counselor in the student health service. By 1971, her increasing interest in civic activities resulted in her running for city council, a post she held between 1971 and 1975. The last year of her term, fellow council members elected her as Fort Collins' first woman mayor.

During her tenure on the council, Mabel came into close contact with a number of lawyers. "I could do that," she said to herself. In 1976, she entered law school at the University of Colorado in Boulder, joining her three daughters who were already studying there. She found a room in a women's student house and recalls that she was definitely her landlady's favorite boarder, being older and more studious than most.

When she went into practice with Arnie Newton in 1979, there were no other women practicing law in Fort Collins, and she found herself serving mostly women clients in the area of domestic relations.

After a decade in practice, Mabel became a juvenile commissioner and domestic relations referee, known as a magistrate in the district court system. She served in this position until her retirement in 1995. The Fort Collins Commission on the Status of Women recognized Mabel as "an important woman in the history of Fort Collins...for outstanding contributions and as a role model to other women."

In 1979, Parker's peers selected him as chief of staff at Poudre Valley Hospital, a position in which he took particular pride because it was unusual for a psychiatrist to be chosen for the job.

"I see myself as a strayed family physician, and I think my years in general practice allowed others to see me as 'a real doctor' because of that," he said.

In 1982, he served as president of the Larimer County Medical Society. In 2003, Parker was recognized for "more than 30 years of personal commitment to the people of Colorado with mental illness" for his service as medical director of the Larimer County Mental Health Clinic and for 28 years of service to the CSU Student Health Service.

Ever since she's been retired, Mabel has spent a half day a week cataloguing inventory at the Fort Collins Museum. Parker serves on the sheriff's Victim Advocacy Team, the Adult Protection Team and as a delegate to the state medical society. He also finds time to tie his own flies and fish year-round in the Poudre River. Among the plaques on his wall is a treasured cartoon drawn by a brother-in-law that states, "To Parker Preble who wants to catch every fish on the planet at least once." When he's not fishing, he's likely to be working out at a local health club.

After 64 years of marriage, Parker said with a twinkle in his eye and a loving glance at his wife, "We've considered separating, but we haven't gotten around to it yet."

Perhaps they've just been too busy.