Prescott E. Cogswell, career teacher and long-time resident of Riverside and San Clemente passed away peacefully on April 19, 2025, halfway through his 98th year, in San Clemente. He is survived by his three children, Kristy, Scott, and Dana, and seven grandchildren.
Born October 19, 1927, in El Monte, CA where the road on one side of his father’s farm bears the family name, Prescott lived his entire life in Southern California, apart from a tour in the Navy in WW II as an archivist in Newport, RI. He graduated from Pomona College in 1951 and then earned a Master’s in Education from Cal State Los Angeles, teaching briefly in Calexico before moving to Riverside Polytechnic High School, where he taught Driver’s Ed to almost every teenager in Riverside of the era, including Bobby Bonds, and met his wife-to-be, Wilma Dolan. They were married in the First United Methodist Church of Riverside in 1957 and were active members of the church for over 30 years. After a few years in the Riverside Unified School District Audio-Visual department, he returned to the classroom to teach History in Central Middle School and later Lincoln High School, retiring from the classroom in 1985 and joining the emeritus program for 5 more years part-time and moving to San Clemente in 1990.
Prescott’s family has owned property in San Clemente since his father purchased a vacation house from Ole Hanson in the 1920s. Prescott always loved San Clemente, so much so that the family beach trips from Riverside always came here, and he was delighted to acquire the house that was to become his and Wilma’s home after retirement. In San Clemente, Prescott and Wilma were regulars at St. Andrews by the Sea and stalwarts of the San Clemente Garden Club.
He loved the outdoors – an early skier who taught Wilma to ski on their honeymoon to Mammoth Mountain in 1957, when the original Chair 1was brand new. He also taught his three children to love the mountains: skiing in winter, hiking, and camping in summer. The young family went camping regularly, summers in the Sierras, Death Valley, or Joshua Tree in the winter; later, he imparted his love of the outdoors as an assistant Scoutmaster, helping to lead their monthly camping weekends. He continued cycling around southern Orange County with his “chain gang” from the church, the “Holy Rollers”, into his nineties.
Prescott and Wilma will be remembered in San Clemente for their time in the Garden Club and their membership of St. Andrews by the Sea, where the memorial service will be held on Thursday, May 29th at 11am.
Prescott will be buried next to Wilma at Riverside National Cemetery on Friday, May 30th at 1:30pm.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Prescott’s name to the Yosemite Conservancy or the National Parks Foundation.